"We found that it completely eliminated the racial disparity in the proportion of lung cancer patients who would have qualified among both people who currently smoke as well as people who formerly smoked," said Alexandra Potter, the study's first author, clinical research coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital, and president of the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative.
The researchers suggest switching to a simple measure that would recommend annual screening for anyone who's smoked for 20 years, regardless of how many cigarettes they smoke a day.
Lung cancer screening guidelines set by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force miss a large proportion of cases, particularly among Black patients, leading to higher mortality.
The simplified guideline would widen the pool of those who qualify for lung cancer screening and, according to the study, both increase the proportion of cancer cases that are caught and virtually eliminate racial disparities in lung cancer screening eligibility.
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