The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is "concerned" by a Medicare panel's April 30 vote expressing doubt about Medicare payment for low-dose CT lung cancer screening.
In its statement, ASTRO said it urges the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to support the December 2013 proposal by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which scored low-dose CT as a grade B screening procedure. The grade requires private insurance payors to cover low-dose CT screening under the terms of the Affordable Care Act, but Medicare is not required to do the same.
The USPSTF statement recommended annual lung cancer screening with low-dose CT in adults ages 55 to 80 years who have a 30-pack-year smoking history and who currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years.
![Images show the pectoralis muscles of a healthy male individual who never smoked (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; body mass index [BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], 28.4; number of cigarette pack-years, 0; forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], 97.6% predicted; FEV1: forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio, 0.71; pectoralis muscle area [PMA], 59.4 cm2; pectoralis muscle volume [PMV], 764 cm3) and a male individual with a smoking history and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; BMI, 27.5; number of cigarette pack-years, 43.2, FEV1, 48% predicted; FEV1:FVC, 0.56; PMA, 35 cm2; PMV, 480.8 cm3) from the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (i.e., CanCOLD) study. The CT image is shown in the axial plane. The PMV is automatically extracted using the developed deep learning model and overlayed onto the lungs for visual clarity.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/03/genkin.25LqljVF0y.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)