Title: American Cancer Society Updates Guidelines for Lung Cancer Screening, Recommends Additional 5 Million People to Get Screened
Date: [Current Date]
Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
WASHINGTON — In a significant update to their guidelines, the American Cancer Society (ACS) now recommends that nearly 5 million more people should get screened for lung cancer. The expanded recommendations include older adults who smoke or formerly smoked, irrespective of how long ago they quit smoking.
Previously, the ACS advised annual lung cancer screening for individuals aged 55 to 74, with at least a 30 pack-year smoking history who either currently smoke or quit within 15 years. However, the latest guideline suggests that the duration since quitting smoking should no longer be a determining factor for screening eligibility.
According to the updated guideline published in the CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the ACS now recommends annual lung cancer screening for current or past smokers aged 50 to 80, with a minimum of a 20 pack-year smoking history. A pack-year refers to smoking an average of one pack of cigarettes per day for one year. For example, someone who smoked two packs a day for 10 years has a 20 pack-year history, similar to someone who smoked one pack daily for 20 years.
Furthermore, the revised ACS guideline advises against using the number of years since quitting smoking as a criterion to begin or cease lung cancer screening in former smokers who meet the age and pack-year eligibility criteria.
Dr. William Dahut, the chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, stated, “I think the years quit was confusing to people. Lung cancer is a disease of the elderly, and so, your risk starts becoming greatest once you’re in your 60s, which was probably during this time period when people were stopping to be screened. Over time, we now see that the risk continues for men and women in their 60s and above, and so that is exactly the time when you should be screening because that’s when their cancer risk is actually the highest.”
Surveys conducted in the 1940s revealed that approximately 50% of all adults in the United States smoked cigarettes. However, smoking rates began to decline in the 1960s, and the latest preliminary survey data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that only about 11% of adults reported being current cigarette smokers, reaching a historic low.
The ACS estimates that the updated recommendation could prevent 21% more lung cancer deaths compared to the previous guidelines. The last time the organization updated its lung cancer screening guideline was in 2013.
Dr. Robert Smith, the senior vice president of early cancer detection science at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the screening guideline, emphasized that the main difference in the new guideline is the exclusion of the “year-since-quit” factor for eligibility. As long as an individual has a 20 or greater pack-year history, falls between the ages of 50 and 80, and is in reasonably good health, they will be eligible for screening as per the ACS guidelines.
While the American Cancer Society issues cancer screening recommendations, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is another renowned group in the United States tasked with providing medical experts’ opinions to guide doctors’ decisions and influence insurance plans. In 2021, the USPSTF recommended annual lung cancer screening for adults aged 50 to 80, with a 20 pack-year smoking history who currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years.
Dr. Matthew Triplette, a pulmonologist and cancer prevention researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, not involved in the ACS or USPSTF guidelines, noted that the ACS’s updated guidelines align with newer modeling evidence. The ACS states that the risk of lung cancer does not cease after quitting smoking for 15 years, and individuals with a heavy smoking history should continue to be screened or be eligible for screening.
It is estimated that only 10% to 15% of all eligible individuals in the United States have been screened for lung cancer, emphasizing the importance of the updated guidelines and increasing awareness regarding screening.
Overall, with the ACS’s updated lung cancer screening recommendations, millions more individuals, particularly older adults, will have access to potentially life-saving screening services.