LDCT Lung Cancer Screening Benefits, Risks, and Limitations

To learn more, enroll in our free online course, Lung Cancer and the Primary Care Provider, at www.lucatraining.org

Besides being effective for diagnosing lung cancer at early stages, low-dose CT has many benefits. the scan is noninvasive and painless. During the low-dose CT the patients lies still on a table and the scanner rotates around the patient as the table passes through the center of the scanner. The scan lasts 7-15 seconds and is performed during a single breath-hold. This is an important benefit for patients with difficulty holding their breath. In addition, the screening is covered by insurance for eligible patients.

Low-dose CT screening has some risks and limitations. There is a possibility of a false-positive result. The average false-postive rate per screening found in the NLST was 23.3%, but in a retrospective analysis of NLST, using current clinical practice of structure reporting, Lung-RADS, the false-positive rate was 7.8%. Additional CT scans and biopsy or surgery may be need to confirm a diagnosis of lung cancer. When lung cancer is not diagnosed, there may be complications from invasive diagnostic procedures. There may be overdiagnosis or detection of indolent lung cancers that would not have become life-threatening, but this is very rare. Finally, as with many screening procedures, patients are exposed to some radiation, although it's about one-fourth of that in a standard CT scan. Lifetime exposure to radiation from repeat annual testing should be considered.