NCI DCP News Summary

Lung Cancer Screening Trial Shows Mortality Benefit from Low-Dose CT

November 04, 2010

The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), a randomized national trial involving more than 53,000 current and former heavy smokers ages 55 to 74, compared the effects of two screening procedures for lung cancer -- low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) and standard chest X-ray -- on lung cancer mortality and found 20 percent fewer lung cancer deaths among trial participants screened with low-dose helical CT.

For more information:

For a press release related to the November 2010 NLST initial results, please go to http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/2010/NLSTresultsRelease.

Copies of the DSMB and NLST participant letters can be found on the NLST site at http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/noteworthy-trials/nlst.

For a Q&A on the NLST, please go to http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/qa/2002/nlstqaQA.

For a Fact Sheet on the NLST, please go to http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/2011/NLSTFastFacts.

For more information on lung cancer and screening, please go to http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/lung.

"The National Lung Screening Trial: Overview and Study Design" has been published by Radiology. This paper is openly available at http://radiology.rsna.org/cgi/content/abstract/radiol.10091808 .