Controversy and lack of evidence for a mortality benefit have made physicians reluctant to embrace spiral computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer. 

A session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting was intended to debate the issue, but no one was willing to argue for lung cancer screening, said session chair Jacek Jassem, M.D., Ph.D., of the Medical University of Gdansk in Poland. 

 

Spiral CT screening picks up 70% more lung cancers than X-ray imaging, said James R. Jett, M.D., Ph.D., a speaker at the session. Its lung cancer detection rate has been far better than sputum cytology overall as well in small studies, he said.