Evidence of National Lung Cancer Screening Program in Korea

Article information

Korean J Health Promot. 2019;19(4):161-165

Publication date (electronic) : 2019 December 31

doi : https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2019.19.4.161

National Cancer Center, Goyang, Korea.

Corresponding author: Yeol Kim, MD, MPH, PhD. National Cancer Center, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang 10408, Korea. Tel: +82-31-920-1753, Fax: +82-31-920-2189, drheat@ncc.re.kr

Received 2019 November 25; Revised 2020 January 05; Accepted 2020 January 06.

Abstract

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The effectiveness of lung cancer targeted high-risk population using low dose chest computed tomography has been reported several randomized controlled trials. Thus, recently, lung cancer screening to high-risk group is recommended internationally. National Cancer Center reported a lung cancer screening guideline by evidence-based methods in 2015. Korean national lung cancer screening program started from 2019 after evaluation of Korean lung cancer screening demonstration project (K-LUCAS) nationwide. K-LUCAS obtained comparable high early lung cancer detection rate, lower false positive rate and lower complication rate compared with clinical trials conducted in other countries. Also psychological anxiety of screening participants had been low, but willingness of smoking cessation had been increased after screening. This paper will review the evidence of lung cancer screening from clinical trials, also, evaluate the benefits and harms of screening based on K-LUCAS.

Keywords: Lung cancer; Screening; Low-dose computed tomography; False positive; Overdiagnosis

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Korean Society for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

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Table 1

Summary of important outcomes of studies on population-based lung cancer screening

Abbreviation: DANTE, Detection and Screening of Early Lung Cancer by Novel Imaging Technology and Molecular Essays Trial; DLST, Danish Lung Cancer Screening Trial; LUSI, German Lung Cancer Screening Intervention Trial; MILD, Multi-centric Italian Lung Detection; NA, non applicable; NELSON, Dutch-Belgian Randomized Lung Cancer Screening Trial; NLST, National Lung Screening Trial; UKLS, United Kingdom Lung Screen.