Researchers cut short a federally funded trial to report high-tech imaging scans of heavy smokers have been highly successful in preventing deaths from the nation’s top cancer killer i.e. lung cancer.
 
According to the National Cancer Institute, study participants who underwent regular screening with spiral CT scans as compared with standard chest X-rays, witnessed 20% fewer deaths among them.  The scans, even more surprisingly appear to reduce the risk of death from other causes also.
 
Among those who played a major role in the national study of 53,000 current or former heavy smokers were the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic, contributing 6,600 patients and 1,200 patients, respectively.
 
Representing an enormous advance in cancer detection, these findings could save thousands of lives annually, although at considerable expense, considering most patients discover their disease by the time it is too late for treatment, with 85% dying from it.
 
No method of screening to date, has proven effective in reducing mortality from the disease, and as Dr. Christine Berg from the National Cancer Institute said this is the first clear evidence of a significant reduction in lung cancer mortality with a screening test in a randomized controlled trial.
 
There are an estimated 91.5 million current and former smokers in USA, all of whom are at increased risk for lung cancer, which is often diagnosed in its advanced stages, accounting for nearly one-third of all cancer deaths.  Lung cancer strikes over 196,000 Americans every year, killing over 159,000, with an average five-year survival rate of just 15%, and kills more than breast, colorectal, pancreatic and prostate cancers combined.
 
There has been a significant advance in the reduction of deaths from other leading cancers, however, persistently resistant the current findings are the first good news for lung cancer in decades.
 
The $250 million study starting in 2002, involved men and women at 33 sites across the country.
 
CT scans creating a three-dimensional image of the lungs instead of standard chest X-rays’ one dimensional perspective, are able to spot more tumours early on, and since they are smaller in size they can be successfully removed via surgery.
 
Charities like the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, including many others have all hailed the findings.