New lung cancer screening guidelines expand who should get tested annually

Only a fraction of people at high risk for lung cancer are getting screened for the disease even though it kills more in the United States than breast, colorectal and prostate cancers combined. New American Cancer Society guidelines will allow millions more to become eligible for regular scans that can detect tumors early enough to save lives.

With one important exception, the new guidelines echo existing recommendations from the highly influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. In 2021, the panel said people ages 50 to 80 who had smoked at least 20 "pack years" and were either still smoking or had quit within the last 15 years should be tested annually with low-dose CT scan, a type of X-ray.
According to the new guidance released Wednesday, even heavy smokers who quit 15 years ago or more should get the yearly scans. Experts say the previous guidance was based on a flawed premise: the longer it had been since a person had given up smoking, the lower the risk for cancer.

A careful look at the data on who was diagnosed with lung cancer revealed that the risk of cancer rose as people aged, even among those who had given up smoking 15 or more years, said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society and one of the authors of the guidelines…