NCI Considers Lung Cancer Trial

A subcommittee of the NCI’s Board of Scientific Advisors is considering whether to recommend that the NCI undertake amajor, randomized clinical trial to look at the incidence of mortality amonglung cancer patients who undergo a computed tomography (CT) scan. 

DanielSullivan, associate director of the biomedical imaging program at the NCI, saidthe trial could enroll as many as 20,000 patients at approximately 10 to 20medical centers. The idea would be to determine whether tumors discovered as aresult of a "screening CT" were detected early enough to positivelyaffect the patient’s quality of life. 

Currently, health insurance rarely paysfor a lung CT of an asymptomatic patient.