At long last a large government-financed study, the National Lung Screening Trial, has definitely shown that annual CT scans of the chests of current and former heavy smokers reduced their risk of death from lung cancer by 20 percent. As a bonus, and quite surprising, is that these same scans reduce the risks of death from other causes as well including cardiovascular disease, emphysema, and other pulmonary conditions, suggesting that the scans could catch other diseases.
These findings represent an enormous advance in cancer detection that could save tens of thousands of lives annually. Insurance companies and Medicare have yet to offer to pay for preventive CT scans so people wanting the preventive test will have to pay out of pocket about $300-$500 for each CT scan. Additionally, it is unclear if the Obama administration will do an "about-face" here. Obama argued during the debate on healthcare that patient's health was often harmed by getting too many tests and procedures that, if reduced, would improve health while reducing costs. This study shows that, at least in lung cancer and other cardiopulmonary conditions, spending more on tests saves lives.
To read the NY Times article: Click Here.
