DELFI Diagnostics Supports Proposed Legislation to Allow CMS to Review New Blood-Based Screening Tests for Lung Cancer

Key Facts

"DELFI applauds Representatives Buchanan, Kilmer, Bucshon and Steel for championing this impactful legislation to provide additional means for CMS to be able to cover new lung cancer screening tests," said DELFI Founder and CEO Victor Velculescu, M.D., Ph.D. "While colorectal and prostate cancers have screening rates between 60 and 70 percent, the lung cancer screening rate is one-tenth of that despite causing far more deaths.
CMS has been a good steward of the authority to evaluate and potentially expand access to new technologies in the colorectal cancer space, and this legislation would provide CMS with a similar authority to improve lung cancer screening.
The Lung Cancer Screening and Prevention Act would amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide this authority, but does not mandate that CMS either review or cover any new lung cancer screening tests in the Medicare program.
Screening rates for those other cancers are in the 60 to 70 percent range, but lung cancer screening with low-dose CT scans is received by only approximately six percent of screen-eligible adults in the U.S. annually.