There are only a few cancer diagnoses more terrifying than lung
cancer. The disease is responsible for about one-third of all
U.S. cancer deaths every year and only 15% of people diagnosed
with it live more than five years. These daunting statistics are
why U.S. medical professionals have been trying since the 1960s
to come up with a way to detect lung cancer at earlier, more
curable stages. They may have finally found a way. A paper
documenting the results of the government-funded National Lung
Screening Trial (NLST) on the effectiveness of lung cancer
screening via computer tomography (CT) was published June 29 in
the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). It showed that,
compared with those screened for lung cancer with regular X-ray,
those screened with CT had a 20% lower lung cancer mortality
rate. This figured was so significant that when researchers
revealed it in late 2010, the trial was stopped early and
preliminary results released ahead of time. The paper just
published delves into the results mor