New research reveals novel insights about lung cancer risk in black patients with screen-detected cancers compared to white patients.
Lung cancer screening that uses individualized lung cancer risk calculations may be more cost-effective and have greater accuracy than current screening criteria because risk factors for lung cancer may not be the same in patients of different races. Therefore, researchers sought to identify race-dependent differences in 6-year lung cancer risk in a lung cancer screening-eligible population. Researchers calculated the 6-year lung cancer risk using the PLCO 2012 model (Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Screening Trial) and created risk quartiles using median risk values (quartile 1: <2.833%, quartile 2: 2.834%-5.0%, quartile 3: 5.1%-8.8%, and quartile 4: >8.8%).
A total of 655 patients (357 white and 298 black) were enrolled into the screening program between January 2018 and August 2019. Black patients had a significantly higher mean 6-year lung risk at 8.0% (range, 0.59%-52.2%) compared with white patients at 6.1% (range, 0.01%-38.5%; P <.0001). In addition, more than half of the black patients compared with white patients had lung cancer risk within the highest risk quartiles vs the lowest risk quartiles. Black patients had fewer pack-years of smoking compared with white patients, but there were no significant differences in age.Today’s Top Picks for You on Pulmonology Advisor
