UPDATE: Death from lung cancer drops for smokers who get a spiral CT scan

A team of researchers with the National Cancer Institute say that screening with a low-dose “spiral” CT scan has the potential to reduce lung-cancer deaths.

The team of U.S. researchers, running a long-term study to compare technologies to screen 53,000 smokers and former smokers have stooped the research early, after identifying a 20% lower lung cancer death rate among those randomly assigned to undergo a computed tomography (CT) scan.

The team divided the study participants into two groups: one received three annual low-dose helical CT scans — helical scans may give doctors a better view internal tissues than regular CT scans — and the other received three annual standard chest X-rays.

The technology used in the screening is called low-dose spiral CT imaging, in which a complete three-dimensional image of the chest cavity can be produced during the duration of one held breath.

This is the first time that a clear benefit has been shown for any form of lung-cancer screening, which is based on the assumption that finding tumors early allows patients to be treated before the cancer becomes deadly.

Approximately 160,000 Americans each year die from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world, according to the American Cancer Society. The group calculates there will be 6,000 new lung cancer cases diagnosed in Tennessee this year. Most lung cancers are detected too late to be treated effectively; 85 percent of patients who are diagnosed with lung cancer eventually succumb to it.