Lung Cancer Workshop XI: Tobacco-Induced Disease: Advances in Policy, Early Detection and Management.

The Prevent Cancer Foundation Lung Cancer Workshop XI: Tobacco-Induced Disease: Advances in Policy, Early Detection and Management was held in New York, NY on May 16 and 17, 2014. The two goals of the Workshop were to define strategies to drive innovation in precompetitive quantitative research on the use of imaging to assess new therapies for management of early lung cancer and to discuss a process to implement a national program to provide high quality computed tomography imaging for lung cancer and other tobacco-induced disease. With the central importance of computed tomography imaging for both early detection and volumetric lung cancer assessment, strategic issues around the development of imaging and ensuring its quality are critical to ensure continued progress against this most lethal cancer.

Issues with implementing a high-quality lung cancer screening program.

After a comprehensive review of the evidence, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recently endorsed screening with low-dose computed tomography as an early detection approach that has the potential to significantly reduce deaths due to lung cancer. Prudent implementation of lung cancer screening as a high-quality preventive health service is a complex challenge. The clinical evaluation and management of high-risk cohorts in the absence of symptoms mandates an approach that differs significantly from that of symptom-detected lung cancer. As with other cancer screenings, it is essential to provide to informed at-risk individuals a safe, high-quality, cost-effective, and accessible service. In this review, the components of a successful screening program are discussed as we begin to disseminate lung cancer screening as a national resource to improve outcomes with this lethal cancer. This information about lung cancer screening will assist clinicians with communications about the potential benefits and harms of this service for high-risk individuals considering participation in the screening process.

An actuarial analysis shows that offering lung cancer screening as an insurance benefit would save lives at relatively low cost.

Lung cancer screening is not established as a public health practice, yet the results of a recent large randomized controlled trial showed that screening with low-dose spiral computed tomography reduces lung cancer mortality. Using actuarial models, this study estimated the costs and benefits of annual lung cancer screening offered as a commercial insurance benefit in the high-risk US population ages 50-64. Assuming current commercial reimbursement rates for treatment, we found that screening would cost about $1 per insured member per month in 2012 dollars. The cost per life-year saved would be below $19,000, an amount that compares favorably with screening for cervical, breast, and colorectal cancers. Our results suggest that commercial insurers should consider lung cancer screening of high-risk individuals to be high-value coverage and provide it as a benefit to people who are at least fifty years old and have a smoking history of thirty pack-years or more. We also believe that payers and patients should demand screening from high-quality, low-cost providers, thus helping set an example of efficient system innovation.

Lung cancer screening.

Advances in imaging technology have ushered in a new era for lung cancer screening in high-risk individuals using computed tomographic (CT) scans. Although most published studies are nonrandomized observational cohorts of volunteers, the ability of CT scans to detect early stage lung cancer is undisputable. What is unresolved is the ability of spiral CT screening to affect lung cancer-related mortality. A large randomized trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute to address this question is currently under way. Genomic and proteomic approaches promise to complement the ability of spiral CT to detect early lung cancer in the next few years. Currently, the decision to screen for lung cancer should involve a careful discussion with the individuals involved about the potential advantages, costs, and drawbacks of the approach.

Clinical issues in the management of early lung cancer.

Lung cancer is commonly diagnosed after metastatic spread, when therapies are rarely curative, providing an impetus for continued research directed at exploring approaches for cost-effective early lung cancer detection. Recently published pilot studies across three continents support a benefit of spiral computed tomography (CT) in detecting earlier stage non-small cell lung cancer. Improved resolution of early lung cancer is a result of significant changes in CT imaging hardware and software. The status and implications of these developments are reviewed. Many aspects of the management of screening for early lung cancer could be informed by optimizing the downstream clinical management of potential lung cancers identified by CT screening. The first and most critical issue is whether or not this improved detection rate is clearly associated with a reduction in lung cancer-related mortality. However, other related issues such as cost-benefit evaluations are also considered. If smaller, truly localized primary cancer can be routinely detected, then options for less morbid interventions would also be desirable. The rapid improvement in resolution and cost of spiral CT has provided a powerful impetus to reconsider the possibilities for achieving safe, economical, and meaningful early lung cancer detection.

Current issues in lung cancer screening.

Despite improvements in drug therapy, late-stage lung cancer remains routinely incurable. The field of screening for early lung cancer is a challenging, fast-moving, cross-disciplinary area, not without controversy. The ideal situation is one in which we approach screening proactively to allow it to mature as a public health strategy. Spiral CT screening for lung cancer is a new and promising approach to thoracic imaging; it allows for a much more rapid and comprehensive evaluation of a structure than the original CT scan. In this review we will discuss issues inherent to the lung cancer screening process, including the value of smoking cessation strategies, the challenge with the rapid pace of developments in the field, cost concerns, consideration of biases in trial design (overdiagnosis, for example), overtreatment, and radiation risk. We discuss recommendations from several organizations, such as the US Preventive Services Task Force and the American Cancer Society.

Lung cancer screening with spiral CT: toward a working strategy.

Given that there is no validated test for early lung cancer detection, the current standard approach to lung cancer detection is to wait for signs or symptoms to develop. In that setting, newly detected lung cancer is generally rapidly fatal resulting in over 157,000 deaths annually. Sole dependence on tobacco control is an insufficient public health response to lung cancer, since most newly diagnosed individuals are either former smokers or never smokers. Finding a more effective way to diagnose premetastatic lung cancer would be a crucial step toward an improved lung cancer-related mortality rate. Based on studies of breast cancer screening, we know that achieving optimal benefit from early cancer detection also involves defining the most effective, efficient, and safest approach to the clinical management of screen-identified lung cancer. In this review, we consider how to build on the successes of other cancer screening efforts to detect and manage early lung cancer. This involves outlining the specific elements for lung cancer that could make a screening program safe, affordable, and effective. We also explore the current standards of early lung cancer management and target areas where potential pitfalls and opportunities for improvement exist.