The PhD defense will take place

Thursday Nov 17, 2022
Time: 10.00 in auditorium B,
Forskningens Hus, Aalborg University Hospital

About the PhD thesis

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in Denmark and the world. Survival depends heavily on lung cancer stage at diagnosis. CT based lung cancer screening is established in the US, but several problems are related with this. This thesis aimed to evaluate three types of bloodbased biomarkers and to examine the relationship CT thorax performed in Denmark and the lung cancer stage distribution. Furthermore, the referral pattern of stage IA lung cancer patients and the management of incidental findings in stage IV lung cancer patients were assessed.

The investigated biomarkers had different lung cancer detection abilities. However, common to all of them were that they were better at detecting late-stage lung cancer, as compared to early-stage lung cancer, and that the detection of early-stage lung cancer was not sufficient for clinical use in a screening program to reduce lung cancer mortality. The use of CT thorax and percentage of stage IA lung cancer varied significantly among the Danish regions. A total of 86.8% of stage IA lung cancer cases were incidental findings and 4.3% of stage IV lung cancer patients had a CT thorax performed two years before diagnosis with a nodule/infiltrate that likely developed into stage IV lung cancer.