Hospitals pitch CT scans for smokers
WASHINGTON -- Trumpeting a landmark study released recently, hospitals around the United States have started offering deeply discounted CT scans for smokers worried about lung cancer. But some question whether it's a marketing ploy that could bring more harm than good.
Among them, St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pa., put out a single-page flier with a headline that a "10-second scan could be life-saving" and a clip-out coupon for a $49 procedure.
The hospitals say they're responding to the study by the National Cancer Institute. It found that annual low-dose CT (computerized tomography) screening of asymptomatic current or former smokers could cut the death rate from lung cancer by 20 percent by identifying the disease earlier than X-rays can.
The American Cancer Society and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are studying the issue.
-- Kaiser Health News / MCT
'I've never seen fire sitting on the water' Three Newsday photographers talk to NewsdayTV's Macy Egeland about covering the tragic crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996.
'I've never seen fire sitting on the water' Three Newsday photographers talk to NewsdayTV's Macy Egeland about covering the tragic crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996.
