More LDCT Lung Cancer Screening Education Needed For Doctors

Cancer screening exams are integral to ensuring patients are not afflicted with malignancies and starting treatments for those who have tumor growths. However, without the proper guidelines in place, radiologists might not be following the appropriate protocols for ordering CT tests for at-risk patients.

A recent survey, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, showed that primary care providers are often unaware of current CT lung cancer guidelines. This leads to fewer exams for patients who are most in need of screenings.

Doctors slow to conduct exams
AuntMinnie.com reported that researchers from the Wake Forest School of Medicine wanted to investigate the CT lung cancer screening habits of clinicians. The survey was distributed by lead author Jennifer Lewis, M.D., associate chief of internal medicine at Wake Forest, to more than 200 doctors at the academic institution.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the country. It is responsible for roughly 160,000 deaths per year. While CT screenings are effective, the exam is still underused in the U.S., which results in approximately 15 percent of cancers being diagnosed at an early stage. Regardless, the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial in 2011 reported a 20 percent mortality reduction in lung cancer, giving way to several recommendations for expanding screening opportunities for at-risk patients.

With an estimated 8.7 million individuals eligible for screening, dropping barriers to these procedures could potentially save 12,000 lives every year. This hypothesis was the basis for Lewis' survey.

The questionnaire was distributed to 488 primary care providers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. It contained items adapted from the U.S. National Cancer Institute's lung cancer screening survey to assess practices over the last year for asymptomatic, high-risk patients who underwent chest X-rays or low-dose CT scans. Eligible participants were clinicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants who provided medical imaging services to patients 40 years and older. They were incentivized with chances to win one of five gifts cards worth $50.

Results showed that just over half of the providers surveyed (53 percent) knew fewer than three of six guidelines for LDCT lung cancer screening. While the knowledge of the protocols was lower than expected, most doctors said that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is influential to their practices.

It is evident that more education is needed to teach clinicians the ideal guidelines for ordering and conducting CT lung cancer screening. This is especially true following a new report from the American Cancer Society regarding the incidence of lung cancer in women.

Lung cancer surpasses breast cancer deaths
For years, women faced the risk of developing breast cancer, as it was the leading cause of death among female patient cancer-related deaths. However, the ACS published new data that shows the lingering effects of widespread tobacco use has helped drive lung cancer to the top spot.

Time magazine reported that the combination of the tobacco epidemic and early breast cancer detection efforts have driven lung malignancies to become the leading cause of death in women. The ACS study, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, used data from 2012 and revealed 209,000 women in developed countries died from lung cancer compared to 197,000 from breast cancer.

"We know now that in a lot of developed countries among women, smoking is on the decline," said Lindsey Torre, M.S.P.H., ACS researcher and lead author of the study, quoted by Time. "The good news is that we can probably expect to see these lung cancer mortality rates peak and start to decline as times go by."

With lung cancer becoming more dangerous, it is clear that doctors need to be cognizant of the condition and work to identify risks using diagnostic imaging procedures like LDCT.

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