Published 17 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3053
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3053

Clinical Review

The changing epidemiology of lung cancer with a focus on screening

Gerard A Silvestri, professor of medicine1, Anthony J Alberg, associate professor of epidemiology 2, James Ravenel, associate professor of radiology3

1 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA, 2 Hollings Cancer Center and Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, 3 Department of Radiology, Medical University of South Carolina

Correspondence to: G A Silvestri silvestri@musc.edu

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide
Incidence varies greatly between countries because of the varying prevalence of cigarette smoking
The epidemic of lung cancer has just begun in developing countries, although a decrease is being seen in some developed countries
Screening for lung cancer using low dose computed tomography has not been proved to be efficacious
Several large randomised controlled trials to assess the efficacy of screening for lung cancer are under way
Screening for lung cancer cannot be recommended outside a well designed clinical trial


Lung cancer is a global public health problem of epidemic proportions, and the number of people affected is expected to grow in the near future. Worldwide, in 2002 more than 1.3 million people were newly diagnosed with lung cancer.1 It is the leading global cause of death from cancer, and it accounts for 18% of all deaths from cancer and more than . . . [Full text of this article]

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