Whites twice as likely to get screened for lung cancer as other racial and ethnic groups

Only about 55 percent of individuals at greater risk of developing lung cancer are getting screened for lung cancer in the United States, according to a review of 15 studies that included nearly 17,000 subjects. Checking high-risk current and former smokers for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography has been proven to save lives.

Whites were twice as likely as other races or ethnicities to undergo screening. Also more likely to be screened were former smokers in contrast to current smokers and college graduates in contrast to those who didn’t complete college.

• See “Low-dose CT lung cancer screening adherence rates may be even worse than reported” by Marty Stempniak on the Radiology Business website (November 16, 2020)
• See full text of scientific paper “Patient Adherence to Screening for Lung Cancer in the US: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” by Maria A. Lopez-Olivo et al.