But rather than lower the age and pack-year requirements specifically for Black smokers, as Aldrich and her colleagues had advised, the task force loosened those criteria for all smokers, regardless of race.

Barry added that, in terms of screening eligibility, dropping the pack-year threshold from 30 to 20 benefitted the Black high-risk population more than the corresponding non-Hispanic White population.

Preventive Services Task Force issued its first-ever lung cancer screening guidelines: Anyone 55 or older with at least a 30 pack-year smoking history should be screened annually with low-dose CT.

The term “one pack-year” can refer to smoking one pack of 20 cigarettes a day for a year — or two packs a day for half a year, or half-a-pack a day for two years.

But “unfortunately, lowering the age and pack-year requirements alone does not guarantee increased equity in lung cancer screening,” wrote Dr. Yolonda Colson and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital.