Screening may facilitate minimal invasive treatment and can be performed with a relatively low rate of false-positive screen results compared with previous studies on lung cancer screening.
No statistically significant effects of CT screening on lung cancer mortality were found, but the results of post hoc high-risk subgroup analyses showed nonsignificant trends that seem to be in good agreement with the results of the National Lung Screening Trial. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00496977).
Background The effects of low-dose CT screening on disease stage shift, mortality and overdiagnosis are unclear. Lung cancer findings and mortality rates are reported at the end of screening in the Danish Lung Cancer Screening Trial. Methods 4104 men and women, healthy heavy smokers/former smokers were randomised to five annual low-dose CT screenings or no screening. Two experienced chest radiologists read all CT scans and registered the location, size and morphology of nodules. Nodules between 5 and 15 mm without benign characteristics were rescanned after 3 months. Growing nodules (>25% volume increase and/or volume doubling time<400 days) and nodules >15 mm were referred for diagnostic workup. In the control group, lung cancers were diagnosed and treated outside the study by the usual clinical practice. Results Participation rates were high in both groups (screening: 95.5%; control: 93.0%; p<0.001). Lung cancer detection rate was 0.83% at baseline and mean annual detection rate was 0.67% at incidence rounds (p¼0.535). More lung cancers were diagnosed in the screening group (69 vs 24, p<0.001), and more were low stage (48 vs 21 stage IeIIB non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and limited stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), p¼0.002), whereas frequencies of high-stage lung cancer were the same (21 vs 16
PURPOSE Cancer screening programs have the potential of intended benefi cial effects, but they also inevitably have unintended harmful effects. In the case of screening mammography, the most frequent harm is a false-positive result. Prior efforts to measure their psychosocial consequences have been limited by shortterm follow-up, the use of generic survey instruments, and the lack of a relevant benchmark-women with breast cancer.
METHODSIn this cohort study with a 3-year follow-up, we recruited 454 women with abnormal fi ndings in screening mammography over a 1-year period. For each woman with an abnormal fi nding on a screening mammogram (false and true positives), we recruited another 2 women with normal screening results who were screened the same day at the same clinic. These participants were asked to complete the Consequences of Screening in Breast Cancer-a validated questionnaire encompassing 12 psychosocial outcomes-at baseline, 1, 6, 18, and 36 months.RESULTS Six months after fi nal diagnosis, women with false-positive fi ndings reported changes in existential values and inner calmness as great as those reported by women with a diagnosis of breast cancer (Δ = 1.15; P = .015; and Δ = 0.13; P = .423, respectively). Three years after being declared free of cancer, women with false-positive results consistently reported greater negative psychosocial consequences compared with women who had normal fi ndings in all 12 psychosocial outcomes (Δ >0 for 12 of 12 outcomes; P <.01 for 4 of 12 outcomes).CONCLUSION False-positive fi ndings on screening mammography causes longterm psychosocial harm: 3 years after a false-positive fi nding, women experience psychosocial consequences that range between those experienced by women with a normal mammogram and those with a diagnosis of breast cancer.
In conclusion, the reliability and the dimensionality of a condition-specific measure with high content validity for persons having abnormal or false-positive lung cancer screening results have been demonstrated. This new questionnaire called Consequences of Screening in Lung Cancer (COS-LC) covers in two parts the psychosocial experience in lung cancer screening. Part I: "anxiety,""behavior,""dejection,""sleep,""self-blame,""focus on airway symptoms,""stigmatization,""introvert," and "harm of smoking." Part II: "calm/relax,""social network,""existential values,""impulsivity,""empathy," and "regretful of still smoking."
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