Computed Tomography

Computed tomography (CT) is the single most important imaging study in the evaluation of thoracic oncology patients. Current CT scanners allow for complete volumetric imaging of the chest during a single breath hold and with a low radiation dose. Chest CT is commonly ordered to further assess an abnormality detected on a chest radiograph. Chest CT is also commonly ordered without a preceding chest radiograph when a patient’s presenting symptoms are acute, severe, or confer a sufficiently high pretest probability for malignant or non-malignant disease. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) has demonstrated that low-dose Chest CT can be used to screen for lung cancer in high-risk patients resulting in a reduction in overall and lung cancer mortality. Lung cancer screening will be covered in a dedicated section later in this text…