Bach reported that he has received speaking fees from Genentech. Dr. Detterbeck reported that he was reimbursed for travel costs associated with his work on the Oncimmune advisory board, and has participated without compensation in a symposium on CT screening sponsored by Covidien. Dr.Berry reported that he is co-owner of Berry Consultants LLC which designs adaptive clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies and NIH cooperative groups. To the best of his knowledge none of these parties have any interest in lung cancer screening. Dr. Gould reported that he receives grant support from the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Jett reported that he has grants pending for work related to screening and early detection of lung cancer with Oncimmune and Isense. Dr. Sabichi reported her membership on the National Cancer Institute's PDQ Prevention and Screening Editorial Board and her possession of a pending patent for a test for the detection of bladder cancer. Dr. Wood reported his participation in the development of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's clinical practice guidelines for lung cancer screening in his role as Chair of the NCCN Lung Cancer Screening Panel.

Black patients and white patients are to a large extent treated by different physicians. The physicians treating black patients may be less well trained clinically and may have less access to important clinical resources than physicians treating white patients. Further research should be conducted to address the extent to which these differences may be responsible for disparities in health care.

Our analyses suggest that the lower survival rate among black patients with early-stage, non-small-cell lung cancer, as compared with white patients, is largely explained by the lower rate of surgical treatment among blacks. Efforts to increase the rate of surgical treatment for black patients appear to be a promising way of improving survival in this group.

The significant rise in immediate reconstruction rates in the United States correlates closely to a 203 percent expansion in implant use. Although the reason for the increase in implant use is multifactorial, changes in mastectomy patterns, such as increased use of bilateral mastectomies, are one important contributor.