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For release after 10 a.m. CST, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1998

CT SCREENING OF PATIENTS AT RISK FOR LUNG CANCER

MAY SAVE LIVES

CHICAGO -- Preliminary evidence from a National Institutes of Health-funded study suggests smokers and former smokers age 60 and older may benefit from a national computed tomography (CT) screening program for lung cancer, according to research presented here today at the 84th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"CT imaging is changing the way lung cancer is detected," said Claudia I. Henschke, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator of the study, and professor of radiology and division chief of chest imaging at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center.

More than 160,000 people die of lung cancer every year in the United States, and it is the leading cause of cancer mortality in men and women, according the American Lung Association. Survival rates are relatively low, compared to other cancers, notes the Association.

"Just as mammography screening has saved lives, CT has the potential to detect lung cancer early enough to save lives," said Dr. Henschke.

Researchers at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center and New York University Medical Center created the Early Lung Cancer Action Program (ELCAP) to screen 1000 smokers and former smokers. Twenty-two cancers were detected using CT; 17 of those (77 percent) were not visible on chest X-ray, the standard diagnostic imaging technique. "Lung cancer is a particularly deadly disease and cure rates are vastly higher for patients with cancers that haven't metastasized, or spread throughout the body," said Dr. Henschke. "The majority of lung cancers we detected by CT were in the earliest stage, which is typically the most curable.

"The Japanese have already incorporated CT into a lung cancer screening program," she said. "Before we recommend a national screening program, we need to do long-term follow-up, assessing cure rate, exposure to radiation and cost."

Co-authors of a paper on the ELCAP program being presented by Dr. Henschke are: Dorothy I. McCauley, M.D.; David F. Yankelevitz, M.D.; David P. Naidich, M.D.; Georgeann McGuinness, M.D.; Daniel M. Libby, M.D.; James P. Smith, M.D.; Mark Pasmantier, M.D.; June Koizumi, M.D.; Nasser Altorki, M.D.; and Olli S. Miettinen, M.D., Ph.D.

The RSNA is an association of 30,000 radiologists and physicists in medicine dedicated to education and research in the science of radiology. The Society's headquarters are located at 820 Jorie Blvd., Oak Brook, Illinois 60523-2251.

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Copies of 1998 RSNA news releases are available online at http://www.pcipr.com/rsna beginning Monday, Nov. 30.