MONDAY, April 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Lung cancer screening can save the lives of former and current smokers, but most aren’t taking advantage of it, a new study says.

Fewer than 1 in 5 people eligible for lung cancer screening go through with a chest CT scan, according to research published April 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

But it’s not because smokers tend to shrug off preventive health care, researchers noted.

Those same folks are nearly four times as likely to receive either breast or colon cancer screening, results show.

“Many individuals eligible for lung cancer screenings are open to receiving preventive care services,” lead author Alexandra Potter, a researcher with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a news release. “The data suggest that these individuals aren’t necessarily resistant to receiving cancer screenings — other factors are likely driving low rates of lung cancer screening.” 

For the study, researchers analyzed 2022 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on nearly 28,500 people ages 50 to 79 who were eligible for lung cancer screening.

People can get low-dose CT scans to check for lung cancer if they have a smoking history of 20 pack-years or more, either currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years, and are between 50 and 80 years of age, the CDC says.

Pack-years are the number of packs smoked daily multiplied by the number of years a person has smoked.

Results show that 18% of those eligible got a CT scan, but about 65% of the same people got breast or colon cancer screening. 

Factors that might keep people interested in preventive health from getting a CT scan “may include difficulty assessing eligibility for lung cancer screening,” Potter said.

“In contrast to breast and colorectal cancer screening eligibility criteria, which are based on age alone, lung cancer screening eligibility criteria are more complex and include both age and multiple smoking history requirements,” Potter said. “Challenges accessing lung cancer screening clinics are also likely an important factor driving low rates.”

These findings show that health systems need to do a better job explaining lung cancer screening and simplifying the eligibility process, researchers said.

“As a community, we need to work together to improve lung cancer screening awareness and address the notable barriers that currently make it challenging for high-risk individuals to get lung cancer screening,” senior researcher Dr. Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang, a thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a news release.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on lung cancer screening.

SOURCE: Mass General Brigham, news release, April 2, 2025