Case seeking cancer screenings for smokers heads to trial

BOSTON (AP) — A decade after a group of smokers from Massachusetts sued Philip Morris USA to try to force the cigarette maker to pay for lung cancer screenings, the case will finally be heard by a jury.

Philip Morris is expected to call experts in cigarette design and marketing who are likely to testify that the company's lower-tar and lower-nicotine cigarettes — on the market since the late 1970s —have failed to gain a significant market share among any group of smoker.

Since the case was filed in 2006, insurers have begun to cover the screenings for certain smokers.

U.S. District Judge Denise Casper rejected a request to exclude evidence about insurers agreeing to pay for three-dimensional chest scans, but said she'll instruct jurors that they are not allowed to consider whether any of the smokers have insurance coverage for screening.