Utility of computed tomography lung cancer screening and the management of computed tomography screen-detected findings

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignancies with estimated 222,500 new cases in 2017 of which approximately 20% are in non-smokers (1). Computed tomography (CT) plays a key role in lung cancer management including non-invasive in vivo initial diagnosis, staging and evaluation of treatment response. Since 1990s, CT of the chest has been used as a screening modality for lung cancer detection, with rates of CT utilization in lung cancer detection increasing at a rate of 10 percent annually (1). Over the past few decades, various imaging protocols and rates of interval chest CT’s have been utilized in lung cancer screening programs.