Detection
Catching lung cancer early is the single biggest thing we can do to save lives.
Finding lung cancer early saves lives. Screening programmes and awareness campaigns are transforming survival rates in countries where they exist. Here you will find a range of different resources that may help you make the case for introducing a national lung cancer screening programme in your country.
Building a business case
A national lung cancer screening programme is a key measure to reduce the huge burden that the disease currently imposes on the individuals affected, their families and the country and healthcare system as a whole.
Lung cancer kills more people than any other cancer worldwide (18.0% of all cancer deaths) and causes more deaths than breast and colorectal cancers combined – cancers for which many countries already have population-based screening programmes (IARC 2020; Bray 2018; Field 2016).
COVID-19 has dramatically reduced lung cancer referral rates and reduced early diagnosis from incidental findings, driving an urgent need for greater efforts to detect lung cancer earlier.
Lung cancer screening with a non-invasive scan of the lungs (low-dose computed tomography [LDCT]) saves lives by detecting the disease at an early stage when it is potentially curable. A recent large clinical trial of LDCT screening showed a 24% reduction in lung cancer mortality in men and a 33% reduction in women at 10 years of follow-up compared to no screening (de Koning 2020).
Screening high-risk individuals for lung cancer with LDCT is cost-effective. The cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) (an estimate that combines years of life with quality of life after a particular health intervention) is within the range considered to be acceptable value for money for public health interventions.
The proposed national lung cancer screening programme will support the early detection of lung cancer by identifying and screening asymptomatic high-risk individuals (smokers and ex-smokers) with LDCT.
Resources
The documents below result from work commissioned by the GLCC in 2020, and published in September 2021, to establish clear protocols for making the business case for a national programme of lung cancer screening. They offer valuable and practical resources to present clear evidence to national policy-makers.
Each of these documents is also available in Spanish (European).
English
- Building the Business Case for a National Lung Cancer Screening Programme (Word doc / pdf)
- How to use the GLCC template (Word doc / pdf)
- Starting the Conversation (Word doc / pdf)
Spanish
- Elaboración de la fundamentación económica (Word / pdf)
- Cómo utilizar este recurso (Word / pdf)
- Para iniciar el debate (Word / pdf)
Expert advice
We have asked experts in lung cancer screening from around the world for their advice on setting up and running lung cancer screening programmes. We are grateful to the following experts for sharing their expertise:
Dr James Mulshine
Dr Mulshine is internationally recognised as an expert on lung cancer, having spent 25 years at the National Cancer Institute in the United States, where he was a member of the research faculty. His research focuses on the application of quantitative CT to enable efficient early lung cancer detection.
Dr David Baldwin
Dr Baldwin is a Consultant Respiratory Physician who sub-specialises in lung cancer and mesothelioma and interventional procedures at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in the UK. He chairs NHS England’s Clinical Expert Group for Lung Cancer as well as the National Cancer Research Institute’s Screening Prevention and Early Diagnosis Group.
Dr Matthew Callister
Dr Callister is a Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in the UK. He is currently leading the UK’s largest lung cancer screening trial in Leeds. He has an interest in general respiratory medicine, lung cancer, mesothelioma and endobronchial ultrasound.
Dr Stephen Lam
Dr Lam is Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Distinguished Scientist and Leon Judah Blackmore Chair in lung cancer research at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre. He is an expert advisor and chair of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer Pan-Canadian Lung Cancer Screening Network.
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Screening Resources
Here you will find a range of different resources that may help you make the case for introducing a national lung cancer screening programme in your country.
You can also find out more about how lung cancer screening programmes have already been successfully set up in our questions and answers section with international lung cancer screening experts.
How have the resources been chosen?
A list of resources was compiled through an online literature review. International experts from countries already implementing screening approaches were asked to review the list and suggested additional documents.
The resources were categorised into: journal papers, guidelines for health professionals, national policies, protocols and patient materials.
We want to keep this resource centre up to date. If you know of any additional resources that you think could be added, please contact the GLCC’s secretariat via email at glcc@incisivehealth.com.
Participant Materials
A range of materials about screening which are given to people who may be at risk of lung cancer and who might wish to be screened.
These can be used to inform people about the risk of lung cancer and the potential benefits and harms of screening. This allows people to make an informed choice about whether or not to take part in screening, in consultation with their doctor.
Policies & Protocols
Protocols are detailed step-by-step actions for health professionals to follow in setting up and implementing screening programmes.
Guidelines
Guidelines set out the principles that national governments or health bodies wish healthcare professionals to follow in deciding who should be invited for lung cancer screening and how the screening process should take place.
Journal Papers
This page provides links to studies evaluating approaches to lung cancer screening, including two key projects: the US National Lung Screening Trial and the Dutch-Belgian NELSON study.