ELCC 2018 | Lung cancer screening: where are we now?
Lung cancer screening is an exciting and debated topic. Here, Mamta Ruparel, MBBS, MRCP, of University College London, London, UK, discusses the current data and logistical considerations associated with lung cancer screening at the European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC) 2018, held in Geneva, Switzerland.
Transcript (edited for clarity)
Lung cancer screening is now underway to some extent in the United States, although there have been a number of publications which actually show that uptake is not very high: we’re talking in the hundreds of thousands rather than in the perhaps millions of people that might be eligible for screening. So there’s a lot of work to be done even in the United States. In Europe, here, we’re all eagerly awaiting the results of the Dutch Belgian study NELSON, and I think until that comes there’s going to be a degree of resistance into implementing it in in a wide, national way, certainly in the United Kingdom...
Lung cancer screening is now underway to some extent in the United States, although there have been a number of publications which actually show that uptake is not very high: we’re talking in the hundreds of thousands rather than in the perhaps millions of people that might be eligible for screening. So there’s a lot of work to be done even in the United States. In Europe, here, we’re all eagerly awaiting the results of the Dutch Belgian study NELSON, and I think until that comes there’s going to be a degree of resistance into implementing it in in a wide, national way, certainly in the United Kingdom. Having said that, there are nevertheless a number of pilot studies that are taking place all over the United Kingdom, and a number of other clinical trials taking place in Europe as well, to look at screening and how we can do screening well, and this is giving us a lot of information. But for the time being we are restricted to that and I think one of the biggest concerns that opponents of screening might have is the cost and the efficiency of it, and I think there are various strategies that we can put in place to try and improve that.
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