Michael Kelley, MD, presented a session on how an improved understanding of lung cancer screening in the VA Health Care System can help physicians better identify the inherent biases associated with uncontrolled trials. According to Kelley—who works as the national program director of oncology for the Durham VAMC in North Carolina—patients with lung cancer can often face biases such as the healthy volunteer bias, the lead-time bias, and the overdiagnosis bias. These can often lead to a misidentification and failure to send the right candidates for screening.
Dr. Kelley’s presentation discussed a limited pilot study being conducted by the VA known as the National Lung Screening Trial. This aim of the trial is to collect data to help identify the right candidates for screening and to determine if additional tests, such as CT scans, can help identify barriers in lung cancer treatment. Dr. Kelley hopes that the inclusion of this data during lung cancer screening can reduce and eventually eliminate lung cancer-associated mortality in the VA.
