Clinical Scores, Biomarkers and IT Tools in Lung Cancer Screening—Can an Integrated Approach Overcome Current Challenges?

SIMPLE SUMMARY: There are more chances to successfully treat lung cancer if the disease is detected early. Screening for lung cancer with low dose computed tomography in people at higher risk is a powerful tool for early lung cancer detection. However, several factors need to be considered for the selection of candidates who might benefit most from screening. Then, the process of low dose computed tomography needs to keep up with technical advances that offer a higher precision in the detection of potential lung cancer nodules. If nodules are detected, additional data might help physicians decide whether they are benign or malignant and determine the appropriate further procedure. In this review, we describe current limitations and advances of these different aspects of lung cancer screening. Further research is required but the integration of scientific and technological progress might improve the performance of lung cancer screening generally. ABSTRACT: As most lung cancer (LC) cases are still detected at advanced and incurable stages, there are increasing efforts to foster detection at earlier stages by low dose computed tomography (LDCT) based LC screening. In this scoping review, we describe current advances in candidate selection for screening (selection phase), technical aspects (screening), and probability evaluation of malignancy of CT-detected pulmonary nodules (PN management). Literature was non-systematically assessed and reviewed for suitability by the authors. For the selection phase, we describe current eligibility criteria for screening, along with their limitations and potential refinements through advanced clinical scores and biomarker assessments. For LC screening, we discuss how the accuracy of computerized tomography (CT) scan reading might be augmented by IT tools, helping radiologists to cope with increasing workloads. For PN management, we evaluate the precision of follow-up scans by semi-automatic volume measurements of CT-detected PN. Moreover, we present an integrative approach to evaluate the probability of PN malignancy to enable safe decisions on further management. As a clear limitation, additional validation studies are required for most innovative diagnostic approaches presented in this article, but the integration of clinical risk models, current imaging techniques, and advancing biomarker research has the potential to improve the LC screening performance generally.