Annals of Internal Medicine December 2026 Eligibility and Prognostic Performance of Smoking Duration–Based Versus Pack-Year–Based U.S. National Lung Cancer Screening Criteria Across Racial and Ethnic Groups

This Week In Medicine · Dec 17, 2025 · 13m

This research evaluates whether using smoking duration instead of the current pack-year criteria for U.S. national lung cancer screening could improve equity across different racial and ethnic groups. The study utilized a multi-ethnic cohort to compare the eligibility rates and prognostic performance of the 2021 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF-2021) guidelines against a proposed 30-year smoking duration requirement. The findings indicate that the 30-year duration criteria significantly reduces the screening eligibility disparities between African Americans and Latinos relative to…