Results of the Mayo Lung Project: An Interim Report

Abstract

Recognizing the enormous increase of lung cancer as a public health problem, the National Cancer Institute initiated three large clinical trials of screening in the 1970s at the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering. The only available tests for identifying presymptomatic lung cancer are roentgenography of the chest and sputum cytology. These tests were given different emphases in the three studies, with the Mayo Lung Project (MLP) seeking to evaluate the effects of repeating chest roentgenography and sputum tests at 4-month intervals in a high risk population as compared with a similar control population not systematically rescreened [2]. The Memorial and Hopkins studies include frequent sputum cytology, but only annual chest roentgenography. The 4-month interval in the MLP was selected because earlier studies had suggested equivocal benefit at 6-month intervals, and 4 months seemed the most frequent with which even health-conscious subjects might be expected to comply.