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WCLC 2025 | What is the importance of IPN programs in lung cancer screening?
Luis Raez, MD, Memorial Cancer Institute, Pembroke Pines, FL, emphasizes the need for more widespread adoption of lung cancer screening, highlighting that only 15% of eligible individuals in the USA actually undergo screening, despite evidence showing a reduction in mortality. Incidental Pulmonary Nodule (IPN) programs, which review and follow up on incidental lung nodules discovered during routine imaging for other reasons, are essential to prevent potential lung cancers from being missed. This interview took place at 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Barcelona, Spain.
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Transcript
Yeah, basically, you know, standard of care is to do lung cancer screening, so waiting for a primary care doctor to identify a high-risk individual, like a 50-year-old and older that has been smoking more than 20 years, to send them for lung cancer screening. Unfortunately, that strategy that is approved, because we have data since 2011 published in New England that works and increases 20% mortality reduction is not being adopted anywhere in the world...
Yeah, basically, you know, standard of care is to do lung cancer screening, so waiting for a primary care doctor to identify a high-risk individual, like a 50-year-old and older that has been smoking more than 20 years, to send them for lung cancer screening. Unfortunately, that strategy that is approved, because we have data since 2011 published in New England that works and increases 20% mortality reduction is not being adopted anywhere in the world. Not in the USA, not in the world. Maybe 15% of the people go for screening, no more than 20 for sure. There are states that are less than 10. So that’s why the ITM programs, Incidental Pulmonary Nodule programs, are very important. Basically, what we do there is we review in the hospitals or healthcare systems all the CAT scans that were done for other reasons, for any reason. You have a car accident, you have a broken rib, you have a fall, you have chest pain, you go to the emergency room, and they do a chest scan. And then you are happy because you survived the accident, you didn’t have a heart attack. But then they discover an incidental nodule there, that they need follow-up. And a lot of times, I guess, the patients are so happy, the doctors are busy, that two, three years later, nobody follows these nodules. And once in a while, a minority of them become lung cancer, so that is why these programs are very important.
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