Background: We investigated whether a stage shift occurs during long-term repeated screening for lung cancer with low-dose helical computed tomography (LDCT) in a high-risk cohort.
Methods: A total of 2120 subjects (mean age, 63 years; 87% male and 83% smokers) were continuously recruited and underwent repeated screening with LDCT from 1993 through 2004.
Results: Nineteen lung cancers were detected at baseline examinations (prevalence cancers), and 57 lung cancers were detected at subsequent examinations (incidence cancers). For both prevalence cancers and incidence cancers, adenocarcinoma (74% and 63%, respectively), especially invasive adenocarcinoma (42% and 23%, respectively), was the most common histological diagnosis, and stage IA was the most common pathological stage (58% and 79%, respectively). The detection rate of incidence cancers other than bronchioloalveolar carcinoma became significantly higher after 5 years of LDCT examinations (r=0.50, P=0.020). Moreover, both the percentage of cancers of stage II-IV and tumor size became significantly lower for invasive adenocarcinoma after 5 years of LDCT examinations (r=-0.77, P=0.007 and r=-0.60, P=0.029, respectively).
Conclusions: Repeated screening for more than 5 years might demonstrate the efficacy of LDCT screening for lung cancer through an adenocarcinoma-specific stage shift.