The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has proposed new guidelines for screening for lung cancer, a disease that is responsible for one-quarter of all cancer deaths in the United States. Among the changes in the guidelines is screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). International studies have shown that LDCT reduces lung cancer deaths by as much as 20 percent by finding lung cancer at an earlier, more treatable stage, Joshua K. Sabari, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and a member of NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, tells Dr. Max Gomez of CBS New York.
Dr. Sabari says there is a risk of overdiagnosis with the scans, finding infections or scars in the lungs that are not cancer. But, he says most experts believe the potential benefit from early detection outweighs those risks.
Learn more from Dr. Sabari on CBS New York.