Tweets about lung cancer screening multiplied markedly after the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released its guidelines on screening with low-dose chest CT (LDCT) in December 2013, according to an analysis published online Jan. 13 in the Journal of Digital Imaging.

Siddharth Khasnavis, MD, of New York University and co-authors found that, over the week following the release, daily tweet counts on the topic vaulted from just 13 ± 8 per day to 311 ± 395.

The researchers further found that Twitter commenters expressed various concerns yet were overall pleased with the recommendation: annual screening with LDCT in adults aged 55 to 80 years who have a 30 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years.

Most users were non-physicians and frequently cited non-peer-reviewed articles, the researchers found.

Khasnavis and colleagues arrived at their findings by recording, for six days before and after the release of the guidelines, the number of tweets using the phrases “lung cancer screening,” “lung CT,” “chest CT,” “low-dose computed tomography,” “low dose CT” or “LDCT,” according to the study abstract.

The team collected a systematic sample of 172 such tweets from the week following the release, coding the comments for user type, tweet opinion, linked article source and article opinion.

These 172 sample tweets were posted by 166 unique users. User categories included news organizations/online news gathering accounts (34.9 percent), general public (21.7 percent), physicians (12 percent, 6 radiologists) and businesses (11.4 percent).

Nearly a quarter of the tweets, 23.3 percent, provided opinion on the guidelines. Exactly half of these were favorable, while 27.5 percent expressed concerns.

As for the reliability of the information shared, most of the tweets—91.3 percent—contained links to a total of 46 unique articles. These were authored by lay press (41.3 percent), non-peer-reviewed medical press (32.6 percent) and hospital/medical practice websites (10.9 percent).

Among these tweets with article links, 50 percent were favorable, citing mortality reduction (87 percent), published data supporting screening (50 percent) and early detection (43.5 percent). Meanwhile, 28.3 percent of them expressed concerns such as false positives (58.9 percent) and radiation risk (39.1 percent).

In their summary conclusion, Khasnavis et al. write: “Considerable opportunity exists for greater radiologist engagement in this online public dialog.”  

The Journal of Digital Imaging is the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM).