Researchers at the University of Cincinnati reported that CT scans can be more effective in detecting cases of lung cancer in high risk populations, if the scans were followed by clinical routine with a multidisciplinary care team.
These results have been reached after a clinical trial conducted on a high-risk local population with rates of histoplasmosis, a fungal infection that enters the body through the lungs and increases the likelihood of lung nodules, three times higher than the national average, performed by Dr. Sandra Starnes, director of thoracic surgery at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine and a surgeon with UC Health.
The research mentioned that smoking and heavy alcohol can raise the risk of developing lung cancer.CT scans proved a great success in high risk lung cancer cases, as there is no medical tool for lung cancer screening recognized nationally.
Last month, the National Cancer Institute has conducted a national lung cancer screening trial randomly on 53,000 current smokers and quitters aged between 55 and 74 and the trial proved that heavy smokers with low-dose CT scans led to reduced mortalities by 20% than the traditional X-rays scanning. The challenge faced the lung cancer CT scan is that the histoplasmosis nodules can have irregular shapes produced by the lung cancer which may lead to un-necessary biopsies.
Starnes explained, "By using three-dimensional CT imaging, we are able to look more closely at the anatomical structure of these nodules and identify concerning lesions". The result of the trial showed that it was possible to avoid unnecessary biopsies without missing any lung cancer diagnoses.
She added, "No one was diagnosed at a stage where the lung tumor could not be surgically removed." She stressed of the importance of the clinical protocol after the CT scans otherwise, people will end with having UN necessary tests and biopsies for benign disease.
