Why some lung cancers found by scans don't need treatment
Overdiagnosis in lung cancer screening
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Some lung cancers found by scans grow so slowly they'd never hurt you—even if you never treat them. But right now, doctors call these 'overdiagnosed' only if you die of something else first, which doesn't make sense. A new idea says: look at how the cancer looks on the scan instead.
Surprising Findings
Aggressive lung cancers can be labeled 'overdiagnosed' if the patient dies of heart disease.
Everyone assumes 'overdiagnosis' means harmless cancer—but this study says even deadly small cell lung cancer can be called overdiagnosed under current rules.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re diagnosed with a lung nodule, ask: 'Is it solid or nonsolid? Based on that, what’s the recommended follow-up?'
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Some lung cancers found by scans grow so slowly they'd never hurt you—even if you never treat them. But right now, doctors call these 'overdiagnosed' only if you die of something else first, which doesn't make sense. A new idea says: look at how the cancer looks on the scan instead.
Surprising Findings
Aggressive lung cancers can be labeled 'overdiagnosed' if the patient dies of heart disease.
Everyone assumes 'overdiagnosis' means harmless cancer—but this study says even deadly small cell lung cancer can be called overdiagnosed under current rules.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re diagnosed with a lung nodule, ask: 'Is it solid or nonsolid? Based on that, what’s the recommended follow-up?'
Publication
Journal
Translational Lung Cancer Research
Year
2021
Authors
D. Yankelevitz, C. Henschke
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Claims (6)
Some cancers found during routine screening might never hurt you — they grow so slowly that you’d die of something else before they ever became a problem.
If someone gets screened for lung cancer and finds a tumor, but then dies of a heart attack instead of cancer, doctors might say the tumor was 'overdiagnosed'—even if it was deadly. This doesn’t make sense to many doctors because the cancer could’ve killed them if they hadn’t died of something else first.
A big study found that when doctors removed a certain type of lung growth from their numbers, very few people were unnecessarily diagnosed with cancer from CT scans — which is the opposite of what some experts thought would happen.
Doctors might be able to tell if a lung cancer is harmless and doesn't need treatment just by looking at its shape on a CT scan—solid or not—instead of waiting to see if someone dies from it.
Sometimes, doctors treat small, slow-growing lung growths like they’re dangerous, even though they’re not likely to hurt you—leading to unnecessary surgeries or chemo that might do more harm than good.