Spiral CT put to test for lung cancer screening. (Study Will Compare CT, Chest X-Rays).

The utility of screening chest x-rays and spiral CT scans for reducing deaths from lung cancer among high-risk patients will be addressed in a large, randomized, multicenter trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.

The study, called the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), will enroll 50,000 individuals at 30 clinical centers and will follow them until 2009. NLST is designed to demonstrate whether screening smokers with spiral CT in fact reduces mortality in comparison with screening them with chest x-rays.

Participants must be current or former heavy smokers between the ages of 55 and 74. They must be in generally good health and have no history of lung cancer. Participants must not, in the past 5 years, have been treated for or had evidence of cancer, with the exception of nonmelanoma skin cancer and most in situ cancers. Participants must not be enrolled in any other cancer screening or prevention trial, and must not have had a CT scan of the chest or lungs within the previous 18 months.

More than half of U.S. hospitals now own a spiral CT scanner, according to NCI. The device is routinely used for staging lung and other cancers, but many of these hospitals have also begun using spiral CT ...