The aim of the HANSE study* was to investigate to what extent population screening with low-dose CT can help to detect lung cancer and reduce mortality. Scientists from the DZL sites ARCN and BREATH examined 5,000 people with an increased risk of lung cancer: active or former smokers between the ages of 55 and 79. The results are still pending.
The results of a parallel study have now been published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which early damage to the small airways can be detected by oscillometry. In this method, subjects simply breathe into a device that uses sound waves to measure the small airways. The technique is increasingly being investigated in studies because it does not require the active cooperation of the study subject, unlike conventional examination methods such as spirometry and body plethysmography.
Even a considerable percentage of people with normal lung function has damaged small airways
The study showed that small airway disease was diagnosed by oscillometry in 39% of smokers. In people who also had impaired lung function by spirometry, the proportion of small airways that were also affected was determined 60% by oscillometry. Interestingl, 26% of people with initially normal lung function – as measured by spirometry – also had small airway damage in oscillometry. This was 16% of the total study population. These people also had a higher risk of metabolic or cardiovascular disease and reported a lower quality of life.
The accompanying study was led by Dr. Mustafa Abdo (LungenClinic Grosshansdorf, DZL site ARCN, now at Thoraxklinik Heidelberg, DZL site TLRC). The senior author of the publication is Prof. Dr. Jens Vogel-Claussen from the DZL site BREATH (Hannover Medical School). Both are convinced that oscillometry is a suitable tool for the early diagnosis of damaged small airways: “We can thus take targeted preventive measures before lung damage in the sense of classic COPD with the risk of metabolic or cardiovascular comorbidities occurs.” In addition, the use of oscillometry in this study demonstrated that it can be easily performed on a large number of subjects in a short period of time. “This shows its potential for early detection as part of preventive medical check-ups,” says Abdo.
The HANSE study is a joint project of the LungenClinic Grosshansdorf, the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (Campus Lübeck) and the Hannover Medical School at the DZL sites ARCN and BREATH. Colleagues from the Thoraxklinik Heidelberg (DZL site TLRC) also participated in the oscillometry analysis. The study was funded by the DZL and AstraZeneca.
*HANSE: Holistic implementation study Assessing a Northern German interdisciplinary lung cancer Screening Effort
Text: ARCN/JB
