text_1: CT Scans Can Reduce Lung Cancer Deaths, Study Finds
text_2: This story concisely reports the announcement that the long-anticipated National Lung Screening Trial indicates that heavy smokers who were offered a certain type of CT scan were less likely to die of lung cancer than similar smokers who were offered chest x-rays. It includes valuable comments that help readers understand what was found and, more importantly, some of the limitations on what is known. However, the lead sentence skews the story by highlighting that researchers saw a 20 percent relative difference in lung cancer death rates, while failing to make it clear that the absolute difference in death rates was much less than one percent, because of the small number of few lung cancer deaths in either the CT (354 or 1.32%) or x-ray (442 or 1.65%) group compared to the size of the total trial population (about 53,500). The National Cancer Institute reported that 300 smokers would have to undergo screening in order for one life to be extended. Readers should have been shown that aspect of the results. Putting a spotlight on relative differences in rates usually magnifies the effects of an intervention. Absolute numbers – and the number of people that need to undergo the intervention in order for at least one to benefit – should get at least equal billing in order to put trial results into perspective.