Prognostic effect of implementation of the mass low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening program: a hospital-based cohort study

Low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening aims to detect early-stage lung cancers in order to decrease the incidence of advanced-stage lung cancers and to reduce lung cancer mortality. We analyzed the time trends of lung cancer stage distribution and mortality rates after the gradual implementation of the low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening in a hospital-based cohort. Using the hospital-based cancer registry data on lung cancer number and death from 2007 to 2014, we aim to evaluate the trends in stage distribution and mortality rate after the gradual implementation of low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening program over recent years. From 2007 to 2014, overall 2542 cases of lung cancers were diagnosed according to hospital-based cancer registry. For the 1-year mortality rate, the mortality rate decreased gradually from 48.16 to 37.04% between 2007 and 2014. For the 5-year mortality rate, the mortality rate decreased gradually from 88.49 to 69.44% between 2007 and 2014. There was a gradual decrease in stage IV lung cancer with the corresponding sharp increase in stage I early lung cancer after following the implementation of the large volume of the low-dose computed tomography examination between the years 2011 and 2014. In conclusion, these results suggest that the gradual implementation of low-dose computed tomography lung screening program could lead to a remarkable decrease in lung cancer mortality and a remarkable stage shift in the trend over time in this hospital-based cohort.