Better Evidence about Screening for Lung Cancer

In October 2010, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced that patients who were randomly assigned to screening with low-dose computed tomography (CT) had fewer deaths from lung cancer than did patients randomly assigned to screening with chest radiography. The first report of the NCI-sponsored National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) in a peer-reviewed medical journal appears in this issue of the Journal.1 Eligible participants were between 55 and 74 years of age and had a history of heavy smoking. They were screened once a year for 3 years and were then followed for 3.5 additional years with no screening. At . . .