EDITORIAL
Annals of Internal Medicine
Celebrating the ACP Centennial: From the Annals Archive— Lung Cancer Screening
D
uring the 2015 centennial year of the American College of Physicians, publisher of Annals of Internal Medicine, Annals editors will link an article in each issue with an earlier paper from our archives addressing the same disease or clinical question. We hope our readers find this interesting and we welcome comments, especially from physicians who were practicing at the time of publication of the original paper who might offer insight into the impact of the earlier paper on their knowledge or practice.
ed— 8 of them advanced. All but 1 was found in patients 50 years of age or older. There is no mention of smoking status, a behavior that was rapidly increasing in popularity, as was the incidence of lung cancer. The authors concluded that while chest x-ray was “the only hope at present” of detecting lung cancer at an early stage, further studies were needed to determine the “final potentiality” of the method, and that screening should be expanded while focusing on “the most productive” age groups.
In this issue, Smetana and colleagues (1) debate the recommendations of a 2013 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guideline that endorsed annual lowdose computed tomography screening for some older adults with a significant smoking history. In 1952, Gowen and Frank (2), using data from a chest x-ray screening program initiated to detect pulmonary tuberculosis, evaluated x-ray performance in detecting lung cancer. Of nearly 157 000 films, 307, or 0.2%, had findings suggestive of neoplasia; 307 follow-up questionnaires were sent to the physicians. Of the165 replies that contained usable information, 10 cases of primary carcinoma of the lung were report-
Deborah Cotton, MD, MPH Deputy Editor Ann Intern Med. 2015;162:589. doi:10.7326/M15-0181
References 1. Smetana GW, Boiselle PM, Schwartzstein RM. Screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography. Grand rounds discussion from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Ann Intern Med. 2015;162:577-82. doi:10.7326/M15-0055 2. Gowen GH, Frank B. Screening for chest pathology using mass x-ray survey technic. Ann Intern Med. 1952;36:138-45. [PMID: 14895028] doi:10.7326/0003-4819-36-1-138
© 2015 American College of Physicians 589
Downloaded From: http://annals.org/ by a Penn State University Hershey User on 05/28/2015
Annals of Internal Medicine
Celebrating the ACP Centennial: From the Annals Archive— Lung Cancer Screening
D
uring the 2015 centennial year of the American College of Physicians, publisher of Annals of Internal Medicine, Annals editors will link an article in each issue with an earlier paper from our archives addressing the same disease or clinical question. We hope our readers find this interesting and we welcome comments, especially from physicians who were practicing at the time of publication of the original paper who might offer insight into the impact of the earlier paper on their knowledge or practice.
ed— 8 of them advanced. All but 1 was found in patients 50 years of age or older. There is no mention of smoking status, a behavior that was rapidly increasing in popularity, as was the incidence of lung cancer. The authors concluded that while chest x-ray was “the only hope at present” of detecting lung cancer at an early stage, further studies were needed to determine the “final potentiality” of the method, and that screening should be expanded while focusing on “the most productive” age groups.
In this issue, Smetana and colleagues (1) debate the recommendations of a 2013 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guideline that endorsed annual lowdose computed tomography screening for some older adults with a significant smoking history. In 1952, Gowen and Frank (2), using data from a chest x-ray screening program initiated to detect pulmonary tuberculosis, evaluated x-ray performance in detecting lung cancer. Of nearly 157 000 films, 307, or 0.2%, had findings suggestive of neoplasia; 307 follow-up questionnaires were sent to the physicians. Of the165 replies that contained usable information, 10 cases of primary carcinoma of the lung were report-
Deborah Cotton, MD, MPH Deputy Editor Ann Intern Med. 2015;162:589. doi:10.7326/M15-0181
References 1. Smetana GW, Boiselle PM, Schwartzstein RM. Screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography. Grand rounds discussion from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Ann Intern Med. 2015;162:577-82. doi:10.7326/M15-0055 2. Gowen GH, Frank B. Screening for chest pathology using mass x-ray survey technic. Ann Intern Med. 1952;36:138-45. [PMID: 14895028] doi:10.7326/0003-4819-36-1-138
© 2015 American College of Physicians 589
Downloaded From: http://annals.org/ by a Penn State University Hershey User on 05/28/2015
