Should all smokers have low-dose helical CT to screen for lung cancer and/or other diseases?
Not necessarily. The NLST participants were a very specific population of men and women ages 55 to 74 who were heavy smokers. They had a smoking history of at least 30 pack-years but no signs or symptoms of lung cancer at the beginning of the trial. Pack-years are calculated by multiplying the average number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day by the number of years a person has smoked. It should also be noted that the population enrolled in this study, while ethnically representative of the high-risk U.S. population of smokers, was a highly motivated and primarily urban group, and these results may not fully translate to other populations. Men and women in a similar age group and with a similar smoking history should be aware that not all lung cancers found with screening will be early stage. They should also be aware, that at this time, reimbursement for screening CT scans is not provided by most insurance carriers. The current estimated Medicare reimbursement rate for a non-contra
