A Screening Test for Lung Cancer?
Unlike mammography for breast cancer or colonoscopy for colon cancer, there is no widely accepted screening tool for early-stage lung cancer. Regular chest x-rays are not reliable enough to find lung tumors in their earliest stages, when many doctors believe the tumors are at their smallest and most curable. Studies have suggested that another technique can detect tumors as small as 5 mm—less than a quarter of an inch. Called helical (or spiral) computed tomography (or CT scanning), this technique is being tested in a number of clinical trials to see if it can find lung cancer early enough to improve survival.
