The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)
Design & Process, Protocol Documents, Trial Results
The NLST design & process, protocol documents, and results are described (link below) in the Cancer Data Access System (CDAS) maintained by Information Management System (IMS), contracted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as keepers and statistical analyzers of the NLST trial data.
NLST Trial Data and Images
Non-image Data
NLST investigators with approved access to NLST data may acquire copies of data in two different ways:
- Directly from IMS
This is a direct request for specific data. Data provided in SAS datasets, Excel spreadsheets, or CSV files.
- Indirectly, through a Query Tool (QT)
Investigators launch the web-based QT, make menu-driven queries against the QT database (a significant subset of all trial data), and save query results to an Excel spreadsheet. The chief advantage to the QT is the ability to rapidly adjust queries and build a final spreadsheet for analysis. In addition, the QT offers the ability to download associated CT image
Images
All CT images are avaliable to NLST investigators with approved access to NLST data and images. The chest X-rays are not available. Subsets of the CT images may be obtained in any of three ways:
- Request from IMS. Petition IMS for images associated with an NCI-approved project. IMS notfies The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) management with a list of images to provide. TCIA pulls the images to an external hard drive (provided by the investigator), and ships the images to the investigator.
- Request with Query Tool. The investigator uses the Query Tool to select non-image trial data, then requests a download of those CT images associated with that data.
- Request via TCIA. The investigator may access the CT images directly via TCIA and download the images with TCIA's Download Manager. This method had limited filtering when choosing images and, thus, may not be the best way to acquire copies of the images.
Access to Trial Data and Images via the Cancer Data Access System (CDAS) at IMS
While NLST design, protocols, and results are well-described and publicly available, access to trial data and images is restricted to NLST investigators with an NCI-approved research plan. NLST investigators with a proposed research plan must register for a CDAS account and petition for data and images through a formal CDAS procedure provided by IMS. See links below for general CDAS information, for requesting login-in credentials, for logging-in, and for IMS/CDAS contact information:
- IMS - Cancer Data Access System (CDAS)
- IMS - Request Login Credentials
- IMS - Login
- IMS - Contact Information
NLST Study Information
- NLST - General Information
- NLST - Main Findings
- NLST - Data Collected
- NCI NLST Home Page
- Publications
- FAQ - NLST
- Contact Us
NLST Database Query Tool
- Query Tool - General Information
- nlstprivate:Query Tool - User's Manual - Login Required (Microsoft Word .doc version)
- nlstprivate:Query Tool - User's Manual - Login Required (PDF version)
- Query Tool - Data Dictionary (Microsoft Word .doc version)
- Query Tool - Data Dictionary (PDF version)
- Query Tool Tutorial
- Query Tool - Contact Us
- Query Tool - FAQ