BUT THERE'S GOOD MONEY IN USELESS PROCEDURES:

CT Scans May Not Lower Lung Cancer Death Rate (HealthDay News, 3/06/07)

CT scans for lung cancer may increase the rate of diagnosis and treatment of the disease, but they may not help lower the numbers of patients with advanced lung malignancies or related deaths.

So concludes a new study in the March 7 Journal of the American Medical Association. [...]

[T]he prior studies looked at survival -- how long people lived after their lung cancer diagnosis -- whereas this trial compared the actual number of deaths.

"We believe, as do most experts in cancer prevention, that in order to assess properly a screening intervention, you have to measure the number of deaths from cancer in relation to all of the people who were screened," Begg said. "That is the mortality rate. And when we do that and benchmark it against the expected death rate in people of this age and smoking history, we find there's no difference."

"This is important, because it comes from an institution that's been promoting this stuff," Edelman said. "But they said that when they look at mortality, they can't show a positive effect."

The new results call into question the advisability of operating on these early cancers, if most of them are unlikely to progress rapidly. Surgery on its own can carry significant risks, Begg noted.

"Our study, although preliminary, provides no evidence whatsoever that screening is reducing mortality," he said.