LUNG CANCER SCREENING

Abstract

Lung cancer has been the leading cause of cancer related death in developed countries for many years; however, it has more recently become a growing health problem on a global level.Within Pakistan, the first report of the Karachi Cancer Registry in 2000 found lung cancer to be the most common cancer diagnosis among men. To reduce the burden of this disease, efforts have been ongoing for years to determine if lung cancer screening can identify disease at an early stage when curative therapy is most effective.The results of the National Lung Screening Trial, (NLST) proved that lung cancer screening by computed tomography (CT) can reduce the mortality of lung cancer in a high-risk population. These results have lead to a renewed interest in lung cancer screening and efforts to resolve questions regarding the most effective way to implement CT screening.