Lung Cancer Screening, Overdiagnosis Bias, and Reevaluation of the Mayo Lung Project

Abstract

The role of screening for lung cancer has been debated for more than 50 years. In 1949, the first lung cancer survey study including more than 530 000 persons living in Boston was initiated ( 1 ) , and in 1951, the first prospective screening trial, known as the Philadelphia Pulmonary Neoplasm Research Project, began ( 2 ) . After the National Cancer Act in 1971, there was renewed interest in lung cancer screening with chest radiographs and sputum cytology that gave rise to three large randomized trials in the United States, including the Mayo Lung Project ( 3 – 5 ) .