Longevity & AgingSmoking Duration Alone May Simplify Lung Cancer Screening Better Than Current Guidelines
Lung cancer screening is critically underused, with fewer than 20% of eligible people getting scanned. A new observational study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that simply counting how many years a person has smoked may be a better screening criterion than the current USPSTF guidelines, which rely on pack-years and time since quitting. Researchers found that thresholds of 20, 30, or 40 years of smoking identified more high-risk individuals than current criteria. However, lower thresholds like 20 years vastly expanded the eligible pool, including many unlikely to benefit. A 40-year threshold struck the best balance between catching high-risk individuals and excluding low-risk ones. Experts note that no single rule perfectly captures lung cancer risk diversity among ever-smokers.
