Tom Witherspoon has wonderful memories of a 45-year marriage. His wife died last year of lung cancer. They both were heavy smokers. ‘Now, Tom is concerned about his own health.

Researchers hope finding cancerous tumors before they cause symptoms will lower deaths from lung cancer. But doctors still aren’t sure earlier detection makes treatment more successful.

"Spiral CT is a new technology which has been shown to detect small lesions in the lungs, smaller than you can find with a chest X-ray. But we don’t know whether finding these lesions and treating them will lead to benefit for people. We don’t know if a spiral CT is better than an X-ray," says John Gohagan, M.D., National Cancer Institute researcher.

To find out whether either test will reduce deaths from lung cancer, 50,000 volunteers are needed for a landmark, eight-year study. Half of the participants will be screened by chest x-ray, the other half by spiral CT. University of Iowa health care is one of 40 centers enrolling patients.

"Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in men and women in the United States. Over 4,000 people in the state of Iowa will die of lung cancer this year. This study addresses fixing that problem," says Geoffrey McLennan, Ph.D., UI Health Care pulmonologist.

The stakes are high for the estimated 90 million current and former smokers in the UI’s study who are at higher risk for lung cancer. Today, more Americans die of lung cancer than from prostate, breast, colon and pancreatic cancers combined.

Researchers with the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at The University of Iowa are enrolling men and women between the ages of 55 and 74 who are at a high risk for lung cancer because of their smoking history.

For more information, call 800-237-1225, or visit http://www.cancer.gov/NLST/.

For more information:

View the TV Report *** Quicktime Required

National Cancer Institute

Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center

Geoffrey McLennan, Ph.D.