CHEST Updates Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines

The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) has updated its guidelines on the use of low-dose computed tomography (CT) scanning to screen patients for lung cancer.

The guidelines are an update to the group’s 2018 recommendations, following new evidence on the benefits, harms, and implementation of low-dose CT screening.

The expert panel utilized the population, intervention, comparator, and outcome (PICO) approach to develop a set of 12 questions. These key questions were used to examine 75 new studies that have been published since the previous guideline update. A total of 7 new graded recommendations and 9 ungraded statements were added in this update.

“Evidence suggests that low-dose CT screening for lung cancer can result in a favorable balance of benefits and harms,” the researchers concluded. “The selection of screen-eligible individuals, the quality of imaging and image interpretation, the management of screen detected findings, and the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions, can impact this balance.”

—Leigh Precopio

Reference

Mazzone PJ, Silvestri GA, Souter LH, et al. Screening for lung cancer: CHEST guideline and expert panel report. CHEST. Published online July 13, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2021.06.063