Lung cancer screening initiatives across Europe

Lung cancer screening initiatives across Europe unknown

Reducing mortality by 20%

Radiologist Professor Helmut Prosch from Vienna General Hospital outlined the vision of SOLACE, which is an EU4Health funded initiative within Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, and the challenges it faces. He said 55% of patients with lung cancer present in the advanced tumour stage, 22% in the regional stage, and 19% with a localised tumour, with 4% unknown. ‘Only patients presenting with localised tumour stage have a fairly good five-year survival of 61%, but with more advanced stages, the prognosis is bad,’ said Prosch. ‘This translates into overall survival of 20.5%. What we are trying to do with LCS is increase the number of patients diagnosed in the localised tumour stage as the smaller the tumour the better the prognosis.’ Figures suggest screening with LDCT can reduce lung cancer mortality by 20%, saving a life for every 320 people screened. 

Challenges include a lack of European guidelines, limited cost effectiveness data, concerns about reaching groups who would benefit most, and LCS training. ‘We know women are underrepresented in lung cancer screening, even though they would benefit more from lung cancer screening,’ Prosch continued. ‘Vulnerable and marginalized communities smoke more and have higher lung cancer incidence but are difficult to reach. The people who would profit the most are under-represented. That is why we have work packages specifically focussing on females and hard-to-reach individuals.’ 

SOLACE is also working with the European Society of Thoracic Imaging on a unified training system for healthcare professionals involved in LCS.