USPSTF Expands Lung Cancer Screening to Millions More

By Kelly Young

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Lorenzo Di Francesco, MD, FACP, FHM

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has expanded its lung cancer screening recommendation. All adults aged 50 to 80 years who have a 20-pack-year smoking history and either currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years should undergo annual screening with low-dose computed tomography (grade B recommendation).

The new recommendation, published in JAMA, will make nearly 15 million additional U.S. adults eligible for screening. The group previously recommended screening for those aged 55 to 80 with a 30-pack-year smoking history. Since then, a modeling study found that screening people aged 50 to 80 with at least a 20-pack-year history would be associated with a greater reduction in lung cancer mortality than the prior cutoffs (reduction of 13% vs. 10%).

Dr. Thomas Schwenk takes a closer look at this recommendation in NEJM Journal Watch. See the first link below.