Annual chest X-rays do not significantly reduce the risk of lung cancer death, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota looked at the records of 154,901 volunteers who had been part of a randomized controlled trial. Roughly half of the patients received an annual chest X-ray, while the other half received routine medical care without any screening.
The researchers found that, over the course of the 13-year study, the numbers between the two groups were remarkably close: of those who received annual chest X-rays, 1,696 were diagnosed with lung cancer, compared to 1,620 in the control group. The cancer was responsible for 1,213 deaths in the first group, compared to 1,230 in the other.
"These findings provide good evidence that there is not a substantial lung cancer mortality benefit from lung cancer screening with four annual chest radiographs," conclude the study authors.