| Summary: | The overall prognosis for lung cancer is generally poor, with a 5-year survival rate less than 15%. In Minnesota, an estimated 2,300 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year and approximately 2,200 individuals die of lung cancer. Despite evidence that early detection can result in substantially increased long-term survival, a number of clinical trials have not demonstrated a decrease in lung cancer-related mortality or a definitive increase in survival associated with annual screening of high risk individuals with chest X-ray and sputum cytology. Recently, there has been renewed interest in lung cancer screening utilizing helical computed tomography (CT), which can provide relatively high resolution images with a 20 second imaging time and relatively low levels of radiation exposure
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