General practice characteristics and chest X-ray rate

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Thank you for your comprehensive article detailing the research study,¹ but as you mentioned at the end of your article: ‘Indeed, O’Dowd et al found no reduction in deaths within 90 days of diagnosis in practices that had higher utilisation of CXR [chest X-ray] .’

I am not sure that you have proved your assertion that just increasing the numbers of chest X-rays in general practice will improve the rate of lung cancer diagnoses. Did you look at diagnosed lung cancer case rates in the various practices involved in your study?

Perhaps targeted low-dose CT screening scans in high-risk populations would be more effective in increasing the numbers of early diagnoses of this devastating disease?

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