A new model for lung cancer screening may ensure that African Americans at risk for lung cancer are no longer undercounted, according to researchers.
Studies suggest that African American ever-smokers at high risk for lung cancer may benefit from screening more than any other racial/ethnic group.
However, the current criteria for screening established by the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services may be insufficiently sensitive for identifying risk in African Americans and may exclude individuals who are at high risk for lung cancer, denying them the potential benefits of screening.
New screening criteria developed by Mary M. Pasquinelli at the University of Illinois at Chicago and her colleagues identified 71 percent of African Americans with lung cancer, compared with 50 percent of cases using the screening criteria from the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
- See “Lung cancer screening model identifies more at-risk African Americans” by Walter Alexander on the Lung Cancer Journey website (October 1, 2020)
- See the full text of the scientific paper “Risk Prediction Model Versus United States Preventive Services Task Force Lung Cancer Screening Eligibility Criteria: Reducing Race Disparities” by Mary M. Pasquinelli et al.
