Journal article co-authored by HPP sets out the opportunity for lung cancer screening in Europe

The peer-reviewed paper ‘Implementing lung cancer screening in Europe: taking a systems approach’ has been published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology Clinical and Research Reports, the official journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). The paper was co-authored by HPP Managing Director Suzanne Wait, Senior Researcher Tasnime Osama and Researcher Dani Bancroft, along with European experts in lung cancer.

Screening via low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) can help detect lung cancer at an earlier stage and reduce mortality in people who are at high-risk of developing lung cancer. Given that a large proportion of lung cancer cases are currently detected at an advanced stage, this shift to earlier detection would have a huge impact.

The article is based on research from 10 countries in Europe and 17 interviews with local experts. Findings were mapped against a health systems framework adapted for lung cancer screening. The authors found that, although European policy is highly variable, potential barriers to implementation are similar across different countries. LDCT screening has been shown to be as cost-effective as and more efficient than other cancer screening programmes, such as those for colorectal, breast and cervical cancer.

Read the paper