Results of Lung Cancer Screening at a Rural Hospital Network in the United States.

Introduction and background: Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the world. United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has specific guidelines for lung cancer screening in high-risk individuals. Multiple studies including National Lung Cancer Screening trial (NLST) trial has shown reduction in lung cancer mortality with lung cancer screening. Most of these studies focus on the urban population and there are very few studies that have studied lung cancer screening in the rural US population.

Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study reviewing patients that were diagnosed with lung cancer after undergoing lung cancer screening in a rural hospital network.

Results: In our study, lung cancer detection rate was 2.96 % (74 cases out of 2500 cases screened). 63.3 % of cancer patients were diagnosed on stage I. The median household income was $50,262 which was below the average median household income for United States. The median pack years of the cancer patients was 50. Significant proportion of cancer patients were referred by either Nurse Practitioners or Physician Assistants (43 %) compared to physicians (57 %).

Conclusion: Lung Cancer Screening can play a pivotal role in detection of lung cancer at early stages in rural population.