American College of Radiology urges federal government to combat poor cancer screening rates
The American College of Radiology is urging the federal government to combat poor cancer screening rates.
ACR recently made its case in a comment letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Over 230,000 individuals in the U.S. will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year, the college noted, and about 125,000 will die from the disease.
Despite it being the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., rates of screening via low-dose CT are woefully inadequate, at roughly 16%, according to 2024 data. ACR wants the agency to wield its resources and help to further improve these figures—which were as low as 4.5% as of 2023.
“The American College of Radiology encourages HHS to launch a public health awareness campaign to promote annual lung cancer screening for individuals at high risk of developing the disease,” CEO Dana Smetherman, MD, MBA, MPH, wrote July 14. “We believe a public health awareness campaign targeted at patients and providers would have a profound impact in lung cancer screening uptake and thus help improve outcomes from one of the deadliest forms of cancer,” she added later.
ACR noted that Medicare and “nearly all” private payers already cover lung cancer screening. Still, about 84% of eligible individuals are not being imaged, missing the opportunity to catch the disease earlier. Smetherman highlighted a recent JACR study, which found that patients who take part in “shared decision-making” visits with their doctor significantly boost their LCS rates. Medicare mandates that patients make these visits before low-dose CT screening, but many do not, the study found.
ACR wants the federal government to leverage this evidence to promote lung cancer screening and the importance of shared decision-making. It also highlighted recently proposed legislation in the House and Senate, which would direct HHS to assess lung cancer screening among women and work to better promote prevention.
“We believe the department has a unique opportunity and responsibility to increase public awareness of LDCT and encourage its adoption,” the letter concluded. “We would welcome the chance to collaborate with your team in such an effort.”
ACR also shared word of the letter to HHS in a news update published July 16.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.