Cancer
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At the current time, there is nearly universal agreement that screening for the early detection of lung carcinoma is not justified. This is based on the fact that, to the author's knowledge, no randomized population trial (RPT) to date has demonstrated a significant reduction in lung carcinoma mortality as a result of any screening intervention. ⋯ Systematic analysis of RPTs supports two major conclusions: 1) an improvement in the cure rate rather than a reduction is cause specific mortality is the proper measure of screening effectiveness in the RPT setting and 2) CXR screening is associated with a two- to three-fold improvement in lung carcinoma cure rates. A paradigm shift is mandatory for the proper evaluation of conventional and newer screening modalities. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of lives would be saved annually on a global basis if CXR screening were offered to individuals at high risk for lung carcinoma.