While the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) came out last week in opposition to CT screening for lung cancer, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) reiterated its support for the screening test which can detect lung cancer at its earliest most treatable stage for those at high risk.

"Mammograms for breast cancer faced enormous opposition for decades and there is still heated debate over screening of women under the age of 50. And there are reams of papers showing no mortality benefit for PSA testing for prostate cancer," said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, President of Lung Cancer Alliance.

"These scientific debates are not new, especially when it comes to interpreting statistics about the true benefit of screening," she said. "However it is disappointing and frankly shocking that the ACCP would flatly oppose CT screening for those at high risk for lung cancer when even the government health agency responsible for setting diagnostic guidelines is more balanced, " she said.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force neither supports nor opposes screening for lung cancer, a neutral stance that it also takes on PSA testing for prostate cancer and breast self-exams for breast cancer.

"It is difficult to take the ACCP guidelines seriously when they are dismissive of screening and only endorse massages and acupuncture for a disease as deadly as lung cancer," she said.

The…