Moffitt Cancer Center Only Center in Florida to Enroll Current and Former Smokers in National Lung Cancer Screening Trial

September 17, 2002

Tampa, FL - Current and former smokers are needed for 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), launched today by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), will enroll 50,000 participants and will take place at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Instituteand 29 other sites throughout the United States.

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.

“Lung cancer kills more people than cancers of the breast, prostate, colon and pancreas combined and will claim nearly 155,000 lives this year,” says Dr. Robert Clark, Principal Investigator at Moffitt Cancer Center. “Our hope is that this study will lead to saving lives,” In Florida, 13,000 people will get lung cancer in 2002 and 11,900 will die of it.

For information about the trial at Moffitt, call 813 903-4941. (For more general information about cancer, call 1-888-MOFFITT.)

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 are more than 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,” says NLST co-director John Gohagan, Ph.D., of NCI’s Division of Cancer Prevention. “Cigarette smoking is by far the most important risk factor in the development of lung cancer.”

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.

When detected, lung cancer has usually spread outside the lung in 15 percent to 30 percent of cases. Spiral CT, a technology introduced in the 1990s, 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,” says Moffitt’s Clark. “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 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 additional information about NLST:

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.

Situated on the campus of the University of South Florida, the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute is a world-renowned cancer treatment and research facility. In 2001 the National Cancer Institute awarded it the status of a Comprehensive Cancer Center - in recognition of its excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Additionally, Moffitt is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the country's leading cancer centers, and is listed in the U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 10 cancer hospitals in America. Moffitt’s sole mission is to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer.

The National Cancer Institute is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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