CT is sufficient for certain lung cancer follow-ups

Radiology departments should adopt CT follow-ups of lung cancers that manifest in nonsolid nodules, according to a study published in Radiology.

Researchers from the Mount Sinai Center in New York assert that the current standard of a biopsy for a follow-up exam is unnecessary due to the nearly 100 percent survival rate of those who undergo resection.

Even when nonsolid nodules transitioned to a more dangerous type of lesion, no lung cancers were found to progress beyond stage I in a retrospective study using more than 27,000 National Lung Screening Trial participants. Nearly 10 percent of subjects had a nonsolid nodule identified during screening, but they had a 100 percent long-term cancer-specific (NSN) survival rate. While 27 patients with a NSN died, the cause of death was most likely from a different lesion.

“We think that we have enough data now to say that these nodules can safely be followed by annual CT scans and do not have to be biopsied or treated right away,” co-author Claudia I. Henschke, MD, PhD, said in a press release. “Survival remains 100 percent as long as the nodules remain nonsolid, and for those that ultimately do progress, the one-year follow-up interval is short enough that they still remain entirely curable.”