NASHVILLE, TN — Women are most likely to die from lung cancer—with mortality greater than breast, cervical and ovarian cancer combined—and increased screening has been shown to significantly reduce mortality.
A new study published in the Journal of Medical Screening raises the possibility that women being screened for breast cancer also could have significant benefit from lung cancer screening.1
Researchers from VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System and Vanderbilt University, both in Nashville, came to that conclusion based on data from 18,040 women who were screened for breast cancer in 2015 at two imaging facilities that also performed lung screening.
The study team used natural language processing to identify 685 women undergoing screening mammography who were also likely to be eligible for lung screening, taking into account age and smoking history. In fact, manual chart review confirmed that 251 of them were eligible under U.S. Preventive Services Task Force criteria.
The study notes that, by June 2019, 63 (25%) had enrolled in lung screening; three were diagnosed with screening-detected lung cancer, although none died. On the other hand, of 188 not screened, seven were diagnosed with lung cancer, resulting in five deaths by study end. An additional four women received a diagnosis of breast cancer with no deaths.
“Women screened for breast cancer are dying from lung cancer. We must capitalize on reducing barriers to improve screening for lung cancer among high-risk women,” the authors concluded.
- Sandler KL, Haddad DN, Paulson AB, Osterman TJ, Scott CC, Poulos EA, Deppen SA. Women screened for breast cancer are dying from lung cancer: An opportunity to improve lung cancer screening in a mammography population. J Med Screen. 2021 May 4:9691413211013058. doi: 10.1177/09691413211013058. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33947284.
