Lung cancer screening guidelines: common ground and differences.

Lung cancer accounts for almost one-third of all cancer related deaths. Lung cancer risk persists even after smoking cessation and so many lung cancers now are diagnosed in former smokers. Five-year survival of lung cancer has marginally improved over decades and significantly lags behind that of colon, breast and prostate cancer. Over the past one decade, lung cancer screening trials have shown promising results. Results from National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST), have shown a significant 20% reduction in mortality with annual low dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening. Based on these results, annual LDCT testing has been recommended for lung cancer screening in high risk population. However, development and acceptance of lung cancer screening as a public health policy is still in the nascent stages. Major concerns relate to risk of radiation, overdiagnosis bias, proportion of false positives and cost benefit analysis. This article reviews the literature pertaining to lung cancer screening guidelines and above mentioned concerns.