Abstract
Lung cancer is the leading cause of death among all cancers and is the third most common cancer in both men and women. This systematic review of randomized controlled trials was to determine whether the clinical trial data is for or against lung cancer screening. We searched PubMed database to find randomized controlled trials and controlled clinical trials within the last fourteen years to find studies which looked at how low dose computed-tomography (LDCT) screening affects lung cancer mortality. We included eight trials in this review of which seven were statistically lower powered studies and found no significant decrease in mortality in patients with lung cancer when using low-dose CT. However, the national lung screening trial (NLST) published in 2011 with 53,454 participants found a significant decrease in death from lung cancer when screened with low-dose CT compared with chest x-ray screening. However, we await results from the NELSON trial to further strengthen this conclusion. There are also other factors which need to be taken into account when electing to undergo screening such as, cost-effectiveness, psychological consequences, radiation exposure and unnecessary invasive procedures.