US Preventive Services Task Force issues new draft recommendation statement regarding lung cancer screening
Carrie Printz
Abstract
In July 2020, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a new draft recommendation for lung cancer screening that calls for low-dose computed tomography scans to be performed annually for people aged 50 to 80 years who are at high risk for lung cancer because of their smoking history. The comment period for the draft recommendation ended August 3, 2020. The USPSTF also posted a draft evidence review and a draft modeling study for lung cancer in people who do not have signs or symptoms of the disease. The draft recommendation reflects 2 changes. First, it recommends that screening begin at the age of 50 years instead of 55 years. Second, it reduces the pack-years of smoking history required for screening eligibility from 30 to 20. Individuals are considered at high risk for lung cancer if they have smoked at least 20 pack-years over their lifetime and either still smoke or have quit smoking within the last 15 years. One pack-year is the equivalent of smoking an average of 20 cigarettes, or 1 pack, per day for a year. The task force suggests that people in this means that the task force recommends that clinicians provide the service to eligible patients. The B recommendation also signifies that at least fair evidence demonstrates that the service improves outcomes or that the benefits outweigh the harms. In a bulletin issued about the draft recommendation, the USPSTF states that new data demonstrate that benefits exist for screening at a younger age and among people with a lighter smoking history. At the same time, expanding eligibility will be particularly helpful in potentially saving the lives of more African Americans and women. Both groups tend to smoke fewer cigarettes than White men. Furthermore, data show that African Americans have a higher risk of lung cancer than White people. Indeed, Jacob Sands, MD, a thoracic oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of the Screening and Early Detection Committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, notes that increasing screening eligibility doubles the number of people eligible for lung cancer screenings and has the potential to reduce disparities in both African Americans and women at high risk for the disease.