The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)
Trial Summary
An NLST summary may be found at the link below and includes:
- Introduction
- Recruitment and Enrollment
- Screening for Lung Cancer
- Diagnostic Evaluation of Lung Cancer
- Lung Cancer Data
- Non-lung Cancer Data
- Participant Withdrawal
- Mortality
- Results
- Images
- Biospecimens
https://www28.imsweb.com/cdas/nlst/learn/trial_sum
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.
https://www28.imsweb.com/cdas/nlst/learn/main_findings
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 the 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 two 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.
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:
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NLST Study Information
NLST Database Query Tool
NLST Images