Lung Cancer Research Program Attacked

NY's CT screening project is ineffective, critics charge

THURSDAY, June 13, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- A multimillion-dollar lung cancer research program in New York may be ineffective and possibly dangerous to some participants, critics of the program charge.

The New York Early Lung Cancer Action Program (NY-ELCAP) was announced in August 2000 and is financed mainly by New York's share of the landmark Tobacco Settlement. Under the program, 10,000 current or past heavy smokers from New York are undergoing a spiral computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest to try to detect lung cancer at its earliest and most treatable stage.

But a group of researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Dartmouth Medical School say New York City made a mistake in funding the study because NY-ELCAP won't be able to determine whether using spiral CT to screen for lung cancer will save lives.

The critics write in this week's issue of The Lancet that NY-ELCAP is fundamentally flawed because it doesn't include a control group of people not receiving the spiral CT scans to compare to those receiving the scans.

The article says the program will even harm some people. Approximately 2,000 New Yorkers will become worried after a suspicious initial scan, the authors predict, and some of them will undergo painful and risky procedures before they're declared cancer-free.

Other people will be diagnosed with cancers that would not have caused health problems even if they were left untreated and would never have been diagnosed without the spiral CT screening. These people can only be harmed by receiving cancer treatment, the authors say.

Finally, the critics charge NY-ELCAP could actually make it more difficult to learn the true effect of spiral CT screening. They say New York City's optimistic promotion of the spiral CT scans could increase public acceptance and demand for the procedure.

If too many people simply accept that spiral CT scans are effective screening for lung cancer, it will be difficult to recruit patients to the definitive trials needed to prove whether spiral CT scans really are an effective way to screen for lung cancer, the authors write.

More information

For more information about diagnostic screening and treatment options for lung cancer, read this Food and Drug Administration article.

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