The death of Peter Jennings from lung cancer last week has led to a surge of public interest and media coverage for the dreaded disease. All of the attention has renewed interest in a test which can sometimes detect the disease while it is still treatable. Supporters argue that the spiral, or helial, scan test can detect tumors while they are still extremely small; but a high false positive rate leaves many doctors and associations uncomfortable with the procedure. The National Cancer Institute is investigating the evidence. A major 50,000-patient trial is underway to see if the data does back early testing using the technique.
- see this story from the AP