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WCLC 2025 | Addressing gaps In lung cancer screening in LMICs
Abhishek Shankar, MD, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India, emphasizes the need for increased investment in lung cancer screening, particularly in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), where air pollution-related lung cancer is a growing concern. The Nelson and NLST trials highlight the benefits of annual screening, but only a few Asian countries have adopted lung cancer screening at the national level. Scaling up screening efforts to the institutional and community levels, starting with LMICs, is needed to address the rising incidence and mortality of lung cancer. This interview took place at 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Barcelona, Spain.
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Transcript
So I think lung cancer is a resource-intensive process for screening and even treatment. So probably now with the growing incidence and mortality in LMICs, not because of the smoking status, there is another component which is air pollution-related lung cancer. We need to invest much more in terms of lung cancer screening; we have clear-cut evidence from the Nelson and the NLST trial that it reduces the mortality from lung cancer if you go for annual screening...
So I think lung cancer is a resource-intensive process for screening and even treatment. So probably now with the growing incidence and mortality in LMICs, not because of the smoking status, there is another component which is air pollution-related lung cancer. We need to invest much more in terms of lung cancer screening; we have clear-cut evidence from the Nelson and the NLST trial that it reduces the mortality from lung cancer if you go for annual screening. But in terms of efforts, there are very few countries in Asia that have adopted lung cancer screening at the national level; still, it is related to research studies or clinical trials. So there is a stronger need in terms of increasing incidence because you know if you don’t start it, and LDCT is the standard one. APOCP and I work for ANCA also, and there are many Asian organizations now coming forward to make a sustainable policy on what should be the right approach. And if you’re not at the national level, at the community level, people should start doing it at the institutional level. Maybe we can just scale up to the population and the community. But yes, there is a strong need to start lung cancer screening at the institutional level, understanding the increasing incidence and mortality in LMICs, including my country, India.
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