The changing view of lung cancer screening

Lung cancer screening by LDCT (low-dose CT) emerged after failure of the chest X-ray screening trials and the dual chest X-ray and sputum cytology examination trials. Results of the randomised NLST (US National Lung Cancer Screening Trial) lead to the implementation of lung cancer screening by LDCT in the United States. Recently, the positive results from the largest European randomised trial NELSON (Nederlands-Leuvens Longkanker Screening Onderzoek) have been published. These results together with the data from the NLST are changing the view of screening by LDCT in the Europe and supporting the implementation of lung cancer screening by LDCT also in the EU. (author)