Posted on 09/19/2002 7:15:48 AM PDT by SheLion
Fifty Thousand Current and Former Smokers Needed For National Lung Screening Trial
Wednesday September 18, 1:00 pm ET
BETHESDA, Md., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Cancer Institute (NCI) today launched a new study to determine if screening people with either spiral computerized tomography (CT) or chest X-ray before they have symptoms can reduce deaths from lung cancer. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) will enroll 50,000 current or former smokers and will take place at a total of 30 sites throughout the United States.
To carry out the trial, NCI is using two research networks funded by the Institute: one network has been conducting the lung screening study called the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, and the other is the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN), a network of researchers who conduct imaging studies. In addition, NCI is collaborating with the American Cancer Society to organize grassroots recruitment efforts at NLST sites.
"NLST is important because there an estimated 90 million current and former smokers in the United States at high risk for lung cancer, and death rates for this disease, unlike many other cancers, have not declined," said NLST co-director John Gohagan, Ph.D., of NCI's Division of Cancer Prevention. "Lung cancer kills more people than cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, and pancreas combined and will claim nearly 155,000 lives this year. Our hope is that this study will lead to saving lives."
To help ensure that NLST reaches full enrollment quickly, the American Cancer Society will support NCI with targeted promotional and outreach efforts in communities surrounding the trial sites.
"Reducing lung cancer deaths is a high priority of the American Cancer Society," said Harmon Eyre, M.D., chief medical officer and executive vice president for research and cancer control of the American Cancer Society. "With a recognized commitment to saving lives from cancer, and a trusted local presence near each of the NLST sites, the Society is uniquely positioned to communicate the benefits of the trial, build trust in eligible participants, and help NCI reach full enrollment as soon as possible."
The trial is a randomized, controlled study -- the "gold standard" of research studies. Study participants will be randomly assigned -- designated by chance -- to receive either a chest X-ray or a spiral CT once a year for three years. Researchers will continue to contact participants annually to monitor their health until 2009.
When detected, lung cancer has usually spread outside the lung in 15 percent to 30 percent of cases. Spiral CT can pick up tumors well under 1 centimeter (cm) in size, while chest X-rays detect tumors about 1 to 2 cm in size.
"Conventional wisdom suggests that the smaller the tumor when it is found, the more likely the chance of survival -- but that remains to be proven," said ACRIN researcher and NLST co-director Denise Aberle, M.D., from the University of California Los Angeles. "Because of the number of individuals participating and because it is a randomized, controlled trial, NLST will be able to provide the evidence needed to determine whether spiral CT scans are better than chest X-rays at reducing a person's chances of dying from lung cancer."
Spiral CT, a technology introduced in the 1990s, uses X-rays to scan the entire chest in about 15 to 25 seconds, during a single breath hold. A computer creates images from the scan, assembling them into a 3-dimensional model of the lungs. More than half of the hospitals in the United States own a spiral CT machine and routinely use them for staging lung and other cancers -- that is, determining how advanced the cancer is after diagnosis. Recently some hospitals have begun performing spiral CT scans as a new way to find early lung cancer in smokers and former smokers. However, no scientific evidence to date has shown that screening or early detection of lung cancer with either spiral CT or chest X-rays actually saves lives.
In addition to the lung cancer screenings, some NLST centers will collect blood, urine, and sputum. These samples will be used for future research to test for biomarkers that may someday help doctors better diagnose lung cancer.
Participants in NLST will receive lung cancer screenings free of charge. Men and women can participate in NLST if they meet the following requirements:
* Are current or former smokers ages 55 to 74
* Have never had lung cancer and have not had any cancer within the
last five years (except some skin cancers or in situ cancers)
* Are not currently enrolled in any other cancer screening or cancer
prevention trial
* Have not had a CT scan of the chest or lungs within the last 18
months.
Additionally, participants can receive referrals to smoking cessation programs if they are interested in quitting smoking.
For more information about NLST and to find the center nearest you:
* Call the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service
toll-free, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at
1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237) for information in English or
Spanish. The number for callers with TTY equipment is
1-800-332-8615.
* Log on to cancer.gov/NLST.
Additional materials related to NLST include:
National Lung Screening Trial Questions and Answers at http://newscenter.cancer.gov/pressreleases/NLSTQA.html
An interview with NLST scientists, a video news release on the launch of the trial, photos, stills, audio clips, and other materials related to NLST at http://newscenter.cancer.gov/BenchMarks/
The National Cancer Institute is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
For more information about cancer, visit NCI's Web site at http://cancer.gov .
Source: National Cancer Institute
Do you know what? We do not frequent places with the likes of you. Everyone who hangs out where we do, are of like minds. We blow smoke in NO one's face. I don't know where you get off thinking the whole U.S. belongs to you, but I got news for you: IT DOESN'T BELONG TO YOU!
At least I stand for something. I don't see YOU standing up for anything. Easy for you to sit on your azz and spew your hate toward people in here. But I sure don't see you standing up for ANY thing. Sad!
Abusive language? Me? You haven’t been hanging around these threads too much, have you? The war on the smoker has become intolerable. If we don’t stand up for our rights today, you will lose yours tomorrow. Think about it.
Tobacco-hooked drug addicts dying slow, painful deaths, drowning in a froth of their own blood, should blame their own foolish weak selves for their illness. Since they seem incapable of this, I would just as soon they blame paranoid ranters like you for stifling the research, instead of insulting the researchers who are just trying to help them.
Guess what! I have never ever seen the above description in ANY of my friends or family that choose to smoke. Not once. Not ever. Where did you pick that inaccurate lie up, btw? Truth.com??!!
Ingrate? INGRATE?
When I think that MOST of these people care about ME and NOT about the grant dollars they receive I might think about participating in their research.
Yes, smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, just as cliff climbing is a factor in falling realted injuries or deaths.
Most of the anti-smoker organzitions could care LESS about ME. All they care about is getting the money that goes with trying to stop adults, who can make their own choices in risk factors, from smoking.
If you really want to hear abusive language just listen to what many of the anti-smokers say about a smoker, even on this conservative forum. For your perusement, "Tobacco-hooked drug addicts" - "I would just as soon they blame paranoid ranters like you", and you're not a patch on the behind of what a lot of them say.
There are MANY things in my life more important than cigarettes. Your opinion of smokers in general is not one of them.
When smoking is banned in public places they have to stay home and grovel because they fear leaving the house and not being able to selfishly blow smoke in other patrons faces.
When smoking is banned in PUBLIC places I have no argument with it. When it is banned in a private business that happens to invite the public in I have a BIG problem with it.
As for staying home and groveling - I might stay home but that's because I can't find an establishment that will let me have the enjoyment I desire.
If you wanted coffee with your meal and coffee was banned in all the restaurants, but not in your home, would you stay home and drink coffee with your meal or would you go to a restaurant and have your meal without coffee?
Speaking of abusive language, please read your own post.
Only trying to help..... what nonsense, they are looking for stats they can spin their way.
I'm not a smoker, but lost a much-loved grandfather to smoking-related illness. He was deeply ashamed of his "lack of willpower", not understanding the many factors that were playing into his life-long addiction, including the fact that he'd been smoking since childhood and didn't know how to cope without cigarettes. I wish I could tell him what I've learned since his death. He didn't have to die the way he did and it broke all of our hearts to watch it happen.
I've never been addicted to nicotine, but there have been many other equally addictive attitudes and behaviors I've battled all my life. I applaud your desire to change in this way. Don't spend your whole life "just fixin' to" quit. Make up your mind and make it happen, if that's the secret wish of your heart.
Another one out of their box.......
If you quit, quit on your own. Don't be paying into the coffers of Big Pharm!!
(Non-smoker bumps to those of you who are targeted by the "for your own good" health nazis.)
Hi there! We call it "Junk Science" and/or propaganda to suit their own means. MONEY!
The most effective way my friends found to reduce their need for nicotine patches, etc. was to decrease their smoking gradually by lengthening the time they went between cigarettes. They weren't deprived, just smoking less by the time they set their cut-off date.
Two pack-a-day smokers who try to quit suddenly are the ones who suffer so much from the withdrawal (and yes, there is a chemical dependence going on). As much as the body wants you to stop smoking, sometimes it is physically difficult for heavy smokers to just "stop". When a person's mind is made up, it becomes easier to tolerate the temporary discomfort of changing a habit without resorting to "big Pharm" products. Yet, for some, it is the very expense of the "big Pharm" products that helps them follow through...so, I say "whatever works"...
Honestly, I don't know "who's in bed with who" in the Pharm/Tobacoo/Government relationship...but those people I know who have successfully stopped smoking are glad they did...and most of the smokers I know say they wish they were non-smokers, but they are unwilling to quit for reasons as varied as the reasons they began smoking in the first place.
I don't either. But Big Tobacco sold us out so I don't feel sorry for them.
But many many of us really enjoy smoking! It's just a big part of our lives, and it's been a right that we have always enjoyed. We want to perserve Freedoms. For you and for us. Smokers do not want the whole world. We just want some of it. 
SheLion...like Nala here? :)
Just had mine yesterday, and I am fine at 68. :-}
Yes! Thank you SO much!!!!
Your not 68! Who you kidding!
I go in December again. 68 my patoot! 
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