Lung Cancer: The radio is not considered effective

A new study of lung cancer just say that the annual radiography of the chest does not reduce mortality of patients.

The X-ray obsolete? A new U.S. study says that in any case an examination of the chest once a year does not allow to better identify cancer cells. "These results provide strong evidence that there is no substantial gain in survival for people with lung cancer with an annual x-ray of their lungs," write the authors of the research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) dated November 2.

The study was conducted in the United States from November 1993 to July 2001 with a group of 154,901 participants aged 55 to 74 years of which only half were randomly selected to undergo annual radiography of their lungs for four years. During a follow-up period of 13 years ended in 2009, these researchers have diagnosed lung cancers in 1696 the group subjected to an X-ray and annual 1620 in the control group. Mortality rates that resulted from these cancers observed in both groups over the 13 years were almost identical with 1213 deaths among those who have had an x-ray and 1,230 deaths annually in the control group.

To effectively track lung cancer, the researchers recommend as a helical imaging technique. An extensive study conducted on 50,000 American smokers and former smokers aged 55 to 74 smokers, unveiled in 2010, has actually shown that this technique allowed better detection of small tumors in their early stage of development than traditional radiography, thus reducing 20% mortality.