UI Health Care Researchers Study Lung Cancer Screening Methods by Tom Moore IOWA CITY, Iowa - University of Iowa Health Care researchers from the departments of internal medicine and radiology are helping to conduct a large clinical trial of lung cancer screening methods to test their potential for detecting the disease in its early stages and for improving survival. The researchers randomly assign participants to receive either a chest X-ray or spiral CT scan every year for three years. After the first three years of the study, research teams will track the participants through the mail and with telephone calls. "What we hope to learn is if one of these methods - the chest X-ray or a spiral CT scan - is better at detecting clinically relevant small abnormalities in the lungs," explained Geoffrey McLennan, M.D., a professor in the University of Iowa Department of Internal Medicine and a pulmonologist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. "Even more importantly, we also hope to learn if detecting those small abnormalities will then actually allow us to treat the disease more effectively and reduce the number of lung cancer deaths." Forty research centers across the nation will enroll 50,000 people in the study, which is scheduled to last eight years. The researchers are inviting men and women between the ages of 55 and 74 who are a high risk for lung cancer because of their smoking history to consider participating in the trial. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is sponsoring the National Lung Screening Trial. McLennan will serve as The University of Iowa's principal investigator. Brian Mullan, M.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Radiology, will serve as co-principal investigator. "This is a very important study," said Mullan. "An estimated 169,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year alone, and 155,000 of them will die of the disease." For more information about the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial, contact the NCI by calling 1-800-4-CANCER or the Cancer Information Service of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at The University of Iowa at (319) 356-3000 or 1-800-237-1225, or by email at nlstiowa@uiowa.edu. Information is also available online at http://www.cancer.gov/nlst and http://www.uihealthcare.com/cancercenter.
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