Welcome  to  public  health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. Heavy  smokers  who  receive annual  CT  scans  instead  of  standard  X  rays  reduce their  risk  of  dying  from  lung  cancer  by 20%  That's  according  to  a  study  of  53,000  smokers. Tim  Church,  a  University  of  Minnesota expert  on  cancer  screenings, led  the  study  in  Minnesota. This  finding  is  terribly  important because  it's  the  first  time  we've  been  able  to demonstrate  that  you  can  infect lower  mortality  lung  cancer  among  heavy  smokers. And  that's  something  we  can  build  on, we're  preventing  death  from  this  disease. There  are  a  number  of  things  we  might  do  to  improve on  the  method  that  was  used  in  the  study. One  way  we  can  improve  on  it  is by  better  targeting  the  screening. By  better  being  able  to  assess the  risk  of  lung  cancer  in  smoking  populations. Despite  the  good  news,  Church says  additional  research  needs to  be  done  before  CT  scans can  be  recommended  as  a  standard. That's  because  a  positive  screening  now  requires additional  testing  to  ensure  that the  positive  finding  is  indeed  cancer. This  could  range  from  additional  radiological  testing to  surgery  to  remove  parts  of  a  lung. It's  not  without  cost, either  dollar  costs  or  human  costs. There's  still  some  research  to  be done  before  we  can  recommend  this  as a  general  screening  method  for  heavy  smokers, for  public  health  moment  on  marker  bras.