Prior research has shown that patients with a mental illness are more likely to be smokers than their peers without a mental illness, noted Dr. Efren Flores and colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital. Accordingly, the group sought to determine if individuals with a mental illness were also more likely to be eligible for CT lung cancer screening.
Flores and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis based on the responses of 11,325 individuals in the 2015 U.S. National Health Interview Survey. They calculated the proportion of patients between 55 and 77 years old with or without a self-reported mental illness who were eligible for CT lung cancer screening.
The group with a mental illness had more than double the proportion of current smokers than the group without a mental illness, the researchers found. Furthermore, the proportion of individuals with a mental illness who met the eligibility criteria for CT lung screening was nearly twofold the proportion of individuals without a mental illness. The differences for both of these categories was statistically significant.
Radiologists have an opportunity to collaborate with psychiatric and primary care physicians in developing CT lung cancer screening outreach efforts for patients with a mental illness, who tend to have a higher prevalence of smoking and, in turn, a greater risk of developing lung cancer, the group concluded.
