Lung cancer is currently the leading cause of death in both women and men in the United States and continues to be a major problem in several other countries in the world. Detection, localization, and surgical treatment at an early stage, provides the best opportunity for long-term survival for patients with non-sma11 cell lung cancer at this time. Studies examining the utility of screening patients at high risk for lung cancer with sputum cytology and chest roentgenograms showed that, despite a higher frequency of detecting and resecting early cancers in the screened group, there was no difference between the screened group and the control group in overall cancer mortality.