Researchers present scoring system for lung cancer screening

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

LungRADS, a system for scoring lung lesions seen in screening studies, was reviewed during a HotTopics session at the meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The hope is for LungRADS to work as effectively for lung cancer as BI-RADS works for breast cancer. The new tool uses the same scale to classify lesions into categories such as Incomplete (Category 0), Negative (Category 1), Benign appearance or behavior (Category 2), Probably benign (Category 3), and Suspicious (Category 4A and 4B). LungRADS also describes how nodule size, nodule consistency, benign and benign behavior versus active cancer can further identify potentially dangerous lesions, perhaps reducing the number of false positive findings. In the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), 40% of participants received at least one false positive result over 3 years; 1.4% of those patients who underwent a diagnostic procedure as a result of a positive result experienced a complication. Reducing false positive results on screening is critical. Using this tool may reduce the false positive findings from 1 in 4 cases, as seen in the NLST, to 1 in 10 cases.