A new risk model for lung cancer was recently highlighted in the August 21 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. According to the report, the Liverpool Lung Project (LLP) risk model was developed to determine, based on specific and sophisticated assessments, which individuals would benefit most from CT lung screening.

The LLP risk model has a strong ability to predict lung cancer, and, according to principal investigators, does so better than smoking duration or family history. In fact, this data has been confirmed by researchers from the University of Liverpool, as well as several U.K. centers, the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Unlike some other major diseases, like breast cancer and heart disease, lung cancer, thus far, has lacked adequate identification tools to determine which patients should be targeted to maximize screening benefits, and minimize its potential harms. Identification of those with the highest risk for lung cancer, a disease which now kills upwards of 1 million annually, will make the best use of the benefit-harm ratio.

Though other risk models have been created, none have been able to successfully apply to all of the world’s population. The LLP could overcome these challenges, though, as it accounts for important risk factors that others skip, including history of pneumonia, non-lung cancer, and asbestos exposure, among family history and smoking history.

The model certainly appears a good way to improve patient selection. As always, the key inscreening exams is to do no harm. Even for those patients deemed appropriate for screening by the LLP, the best approach is with ultra-low dose CT— such as done with model based iterative reconstruction.

To learn more about the LLP, please click here!