Older cigarette smokers are needed to take part in a University of Iowa study that may help reduce deaths from America’s number-one cancer killer. Lung cancer kills 17-hundred Iowans every year. The study’s chief investigator, U-of-I Professor Geoffrey McLennan, says by statistics one in every 20 volunteers will have early lung cancer. He wants to determine if early detection and treatment brings a higher rate of survival.Researchers need 15-hundred volunteers who’ve never had lung cancer, people between 55 and 74 who smoke now or who’ve quit in the past 15 years. Volunteers will have to make one trip a year to Iowa City over three years. They’ll be subjected to chest X-rays and/or spiral C-T (computed tomography) scans. The C-T scans and X-rays both use modern digital technology, not film. Dr. McLennan says the images are in a computer and can be manipulated to get much information out of them. He says the digital pictures can be blown up to reveal very small tumors which otherwise might be overlooked using traditional film. For more information on the study, call 800 237-1225.
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