Data from a lung cancer screening program at the University of Illinois at Chicago provides evidence that national lung cancer screening guidelines, which were developed based on the National Lung Screening Trial, or NLST, in 2011 and recommend screening based on age and smoking history, may be insufficient for individuals in underrepresented communities.
The UIC researchers, who are members of the University of Illinois Cancer Center, found that when compared with patients in the NLST, the cohort of patients engaged in a Chicago-based lung cancer screening program had a higher percentage of black (69.6 percent vs. 4.5 percent) and Latino (10.6 percent vs. 1.8 percent) individuals, double the number of positive scans (24.6 percent vs. 13.7 percent) and a higher percentage of diagnosed lung cancer cases (2.6 percent vs. 1.1 percent).
