Lung Cancer Screening

pISSN 1738-429X eISSN 2234-4446 Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, including in Korea. Although various treatment modalities have been developed, the prognosis of patients with lung cancer is still very unfavorable. Most patients with lung cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage, and palliative care remains the only therapeutic option for these pa-tients. Accordingly, early detection of lung cancer may lead to a decrease in lung cancer-related mortality. Therefore, considerable interest has been generated in the development of screening tools to detect lung cancer at an early stage. Although chest radiography and sputum cytological evaluation have been used to screen patients for lung cancer, the sen-sitivity and specificity of these procedures are not adequate. Recently, low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) has emerged as a promising screening technique, and several trials have demonstrated its benefit in the high-risk population. One such well-designed and well-conducted trial, the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), showed a 20 % reduction in lung cancer-related mortality. Based on the results of NLST and other trials, screening for lung cancer using LDCT is recommended in asymptomatic patients who are at a high ris