Use of high-resolution CT imaging data in lung cancer drug development: measuring progress.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death throughout the United States.[1] Despite massive efforts, tobacco consumption continues to grow, with a large and predictable impact on premature mortality across the globe.[2] There is an urgent need to improve outcomes for lung cancer patients, but the process of developing more effective drugs for lung cancer is hampered by the extraordinary cost of pharmaceutical development and a cumbersome development process. While many factors contribute to high development costs, one of the most significant is the cost of clinical validation trials. This cost is increased by the lack of precision inherent in using the manual measurement technique for drug response evaluation using the current standard approach, called the RECIST criteria (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors).[3] RECIST is the validated tool used in most clinical trials.