Wednesday September 18, 1:00 pm ET
To carry out the trial, NCI is using two research networks funded by the Institute: one network has been conducting the lung screening study called the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, and the other is the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN), a network of researchers who conduct imaging studies. In addition, NCI is collaborating with the American Cancer Society to organize grassroots recruitment efforts at NLST sites.
"NLST is important because there an estimated 90 million current and former smokers in the United States at high risk for lung cancer, and death rates for this disease, unlike many other cancers, have not declined," said NLST co-director John Gohagan, Ph.D., of NCI's Division of Cancer Prevention. "Lung cancer kills more people than cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, and pancreas combined and will claim nearly 155,000 lives this year. Our hope is that this study will lead to saving lives."
To help ensure that NLST reaches full enrollment quickly, the American Cancer Society will support NCI with targeted promotional and outreach efforts in communities surrounding the trial sites.
"Reducing lung cancer deaths is a high priority of the American Cancer Society," said Harmon Eyre, M.D., chief medical officer and executive vice president for research and cancer control of the American Cancer Society. "With a recognized commitment to saving lives from cancer, and a trusted local presence near each of the NLST sites, the Society is uniquely positioned to communicate the benefits of the trial, build trust in eligible participants, and help NCI reach full enrollment as soon as possible."
The trial is a randomized, controlled study -- the "gold standard" of research studies. Study participants will be randomly assigned -- designated by chance -- to receive either a chest X-ray or a spiral CT once a year for three years. Researchers will continue to contact participants annually to monitor their health until 2009.
When detected, lung cancer has usually spread outside the lung in 15 percent to 30 percent of cases. Spiral CT can pick up tumors well under 1 centimeter (cm) in size, while chest X-rays detect tumors about 1 to 2 cm in size.
"Conventional wisdom suggests that the smaller the tumor when it is found, the more likely the chance of survival -- but that remains to be proven," said ACRIN researcher and NLST co-director Denise Aberle, M.D., from the University of California Los Angeles. "Because of the number of individuals participating and because it is a randomized, controlled trial, NLST will be able to provide the evidence needed to determine whether spiral CT scans are better than chest X-rays at reducing a person's chances of dying from lung cancer."
Spiral CT, a technology introduced in the 1990s, uses X-rays to scan the entire chest in about 15 to 25 seconds, during a single breath hold. A computer creates images from the scan, assembling them into a 3-dimensional model of the lungs. More than half of the hospitals in the United States own a spiral CT machine and routinely use them for staging lung and other cancers -- that is, determining how advanced the cancer is after diagnosis. Recently some hospitals have begun performing spiral CT scans as a new way to find early lung cancer in smokers and former smokers. However, no scientific evidence to date has shown that screening or early detection of lung cancer with either spiral CT or chest X-rays actually saves lives.
In addition to the lung cancer screenings, some NLST centers will collect blood, urine, and sputum. These samples will be used for future research to test for biomarkers that may someday help doctors better diagnose lung cancer.
Participants in NLST will receive lung cancer screenings free of charge. Men and women can participate in NLST if they meet the following requirements:
* Are current or former smokers ages 55 to 74
* Have never had lung cancer and have not had any cancer within the
last five years (except some skin cancers or in situ cancers)
* Are not currently enrolled in any other cancer screening or cancer
prevention trial
* Have not had a CT scan of the chest or lungs within the last 18
months.
Additionally, participants can receive referrals to smoking cessation programs if they are interested in quitting smoking.
For more information about NLST and to find the center nearest you:
* Call the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service
toll-free, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at
1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237) for information in English or
Spanish. The number for callers with TTY equipment is
1-800-332-8615.
* Log on to cancer.gov/NLST.
Additional materials related to NLST include:
National Lung Screening Trial Questions and Answers at http://newscenter.cancer.gov/pressreleases/NLSTQA.html
An interview with NLST scientists, a video news release on the launch of the trial, photos, stills, audio clips, and other materials related to NLST at http://newscenter.cancer.gov/BenchMarks/
The National Cancer Institute is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
For more information about cancer, visit NCI's Web site at http://cancer.gov .
Regarding your article: "Fifty Thousand Current and Former Smokers Needed For National Lung Screening Trial"
I've read your call for "Fifty Thousand Current and Former Smokers Needed For National Lung Screening Trial." That will be the day when I hand my body over to you! I trust any anti-smoker organization as far as I can throw a battleship. And most smokers feel the same way.
You've funded and /or backed anti-smoker cells that have directed doctors to harass smokers that has resulted in smokers not going to the doctor, even though they're more than entitled since they pay so much more than anyone else and far beyond. Anti-smoker orgs. have manipulated scientific studies for the sake of lining their pockets with those thirty pieces of silver; basically stealing money from smokers and then telling the world you're concerned with our health; you couldn't care less about our health. The only health antis are concerned with is the wealth of their pockets! Exploited smokers. Extorted wealth.
You've seen to it that smokers a socially unexceptable and considered fourth class diseased citizens who do not deserve to live on the same planet with everyone else. The funding and backing that you've given these antis has made it possible for them to have our children taken away from us because we smoke, they've seen to it that we're denied employment; housing and MEDICAL CARE, deprived us of the right of free association, trying to keep us from our rightful pursuit of happiness by banning us from restaurants and other establishments offering forms of relaxation and entertainment. You've made it possible to stop smokers from flying and staying at their favorite vacation spot and worst of all; you've turned our children against us by showing them pig lungs and telling them it was a cancerous smokers lung, telling them that their parents are going to die because they smoke (you care at all about what this does to a child? It's frightening to them!) and teaching them hatred of smokers in their schools without their parents knowledge.
And you want smokers to bring their bodies in to you for a trial? That would be like sending any American into an al Qaeda camp; the camp of the enemy. An enemy that wants to dispose of us. What is the saying about the spider inviting the fly? You actually expect us to believe you. I think any smoker who would volunteer for your "Trial" has to be out of their mind or so very well brainwashed that they are bad Americans because they smoke. You want to use us as guinea pigs and at the very least we would be harassed the same as we are when we go to the doctors office; that's made very clear in your article. At worse.....well who knows ("...spiral computerized tomography ("CT or chest X-ray"); lets just say I'd never let you give me a shot of any kind, let alone take a lung biopsy (a potentially risky procedure*) because YOU say there are abnormalities.
I'm, by far, not the only smoker who feels this way. Congratulations!
Carol Jensen