New online lung cancer screening tool places emphasis on individualized care
A team of researchers has published a free online tool to help clinicians personalize lung cancer screening decisions for patients. The team hopes to enhance patient understanding and attitudes related to cancer risk, while potentially avoiding unnecessary screenings.
The study, which provided the framework for the new Lung Decision Precision tool, was conducted by a University of Michigan and U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs team and was published online May 29 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
"Our model is built on a comprehensive view of net benefits for individual patients, which incorporates the best evidence for personalizing the pros and cons of screening and assumes that not all patients will feel the same about screening and its consequences," said first author Tanner Caverly, MD, and assistant professor in the Division of General Medicine at U-M Medical School, in a press release. "This allows us to identify which patients are in the preference-sensitive zone for the decision about screening, and which ones have a very clear potential benefit to them."
Caverly and colleagues performed a computer-based simulation analysis on data from major lung cancer screening studies and national data on the potential screening population under current guidelines.
The group found any person with an annual chance of lung cancer between 0.3 percent and 1.3 percent with a life expectancy of more than 10 years fell into the highly-beneficial category. Which, according to Tanner, accounts for nearly 50 percent of all Americans who quality for cancer screening under current guidelines.
For the remaining population, personal preferences should be a major factor in determining if they should undergo a scan, Caverly et al. wrote.
Personal feelings toward screening are more important to the decision than the false-positive rate for lung CT screening, and the negative impacts of being over-treated for a lung cancer that wasn’t highly dangerous, authors noted.
"This method can incorporate anything that moves the needle on risk and benefit, and that involves patient preferences about time, dollars and worry," Caverly said. "As a clinician I'd like to have this for many of the things I do, where it would be meaningful to know how beneficial something could be for the individual patient, and we could talk about whether it's indicated for them."
The Lung Decision Precision tool is available here.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.