CT screening for lung cancer doesn’t increase unnecessary surgery

Editor's Note

The incidence of unnecessary surgery for lung cancer diagnosed with CT-based screening is low (0.30%), this study finds.

CT screening for lung cancer in long-term smokers is recommended by experts and is now covered by Medicare and some private insurers. However, there has been concern that wider adoption of screening might result in unnecessary surgical procedures.

In this study, 25 of 1,654 patients had a surgical procedure because of CT scan results. Of those, 20 had lung cancer. The other five had non-lung cancer diagnoses: two hamartomas, two necrotizing granulomas, and one breast cancer metastasis.