On a related note, the National Cancer Institute declared that computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screenings have a disturbingly high rate of false positives. This comes as no surprise to the staff at ACSH. "The data is obvious," says Dr. Ross, "we've known this to be an unreliable test when it comes to false positives. Of even greater concern is false negatives."
ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan agrees: "You can't say that enough. So many smokers are on such a guilt trip that they want to go get a CT scan, and we have to tell them that we're not there yet in terms of certainty." The rate of false positives after one CT scan was 21% compared to just 9% after x-rays, leading some patients to pursue unnecessary and potentially dangerous treatment.
