A Medicare advisory panel recently recommended against using CT scans as a screening tool for individuals with a high risk of developing lung cancer. It was determined that the risks associated with CT scans outweigh the potential benefits of catching lung cancer early. This means that individuals at high risk of asbestos cancer would not receive a CT scan until physicians had reason to suspect that they developed lung cancer.

CT scans are a type of advanced X-ray, in which a person is briefly exposed to X-rays. Since X-rays pass through many types of tissue, they can be used to create a image of the inside of the body. CT scans differ from old-fashioned X-rays in that they use computers to create a 3-D image of the inside of the body instead of a two-dimensional image on film. CT scans use lower doses of X-rays than older X-ray techniques, but there is still a risk that X-rays, a type of radiation, can cause damage to DNA and promote the formation of cancer. The risk is small, but if CT scans were used more casually, the risks could outweigh the benefits.

The Medicare advisory panel voted after collecting opinions from qualified medical personnel. Panel members were asked to vote on a scale of 1 to 5 (low to high) on how confident they were that CT scans’ benefits would outweigh the risks. The panel’s mean voting score was 2, suggesting a lower level of confidence.

The vote came in response to several medical organizations, including the American Cancer Society and others, advocating that Medicare provide for annual CT screenings to find lung cancer. The American College of Radiology has already condemned the panel’s decision.

Lung cancer is a particular concern for the elderly for a number of reasons. Older Americans with a history of smoking are one of the highest-risk groups for lung cancer. Additionally, older Americans are more likely to have worked with asbestos, putting them at risk of developing asbestos lung cancer.

Asbestos is a naturally-occurring mineral that was widely used as a building material. However, it has been found that exposure to asbestos makes a patient more likely to develop lung cancer. While its use has been largely phased out, it can take decades for asbestos lung cancer and other forms of cancer to develop. This means that many who worked with the mineral in their youth are now at a greater risk for developing asbestos cancer.

Asbestos litigation sometimes takes the form of class action lawsuits. Class action lawsuits are a type of group lawsuit in which a group of individuals alleges they have suffered from similar harm at the hands of the same defendant. Class action lawsuits are designed to help streamline the process by replacing dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual lawsuits with a single lawsuit.