An article published December 15 in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology reports on the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) establishment of a committee to advance lung cancer screening practice.
The report summarizes the findings of a CT screening workshop held in Amsterdam earlier this year that brought together the expertise of radiologists, pulmonologists, surgeons, pathologists, and cancer screening experts worldwide to advance lung cancer screening practice.
The screening committee's findings establish several priorities for advancing lung cancer screening practice, including identifying and prioritizing several unanswered questions about screening, setting up demonstration projects to address this knowledge gap, and advising on standards for CT screening implementation in cooperation with professional societies.
The renewed push for lung cancer screening stems from the 2010 publication of results from the National Lung Screening Trial, which showed a 20% mortality reduction when smokers are screened annually for lung cancer, although the high prevalence of noncancerous nodules that could lead to unnecessary invasive procedures remains problematic, IASLC said in a statement accompanying the December 15 results.
IASLC's Strategic CT Screening Advisory Committee (SSAC) is tasked with engaging professional societies and organizations that are stakeholders in CT lung screening to develop guidelines in six specific areas, the article stated:
- Identifying high-risk individuals for lung cancer CT screening programs
- Developing radiological guidelines for use in developing national screening programs
- Developing guidelines for the clinical workup of indeterminate nodules resulting from CT screening
- Creating guidelines for pathology reporting of nodules from lung cancer CT screening programs
- Developing recommendations for surgical and therapeutic interventions of suspicious nodules identified through lung cancer CT screening programs
- Integrating smoking cessation practices into future national lung cancer CT screening programs
IASLC emphasized that it recognizes the importance of engaging the major international stakeholders in lung cancer CT screening to develop guidelines and recommendations as it moves its initiative forward. The committee will also take into account the experience of several large-scale lung cancer screening studies, according to the article.
