Lung cancer screening
This page tells you about screening for lung cancer. You can find information about
Lung cancer screening
Screening means testing people for the early stages of a disease before they have any symptoms. Before screening for any type of cancer can be carried out, doctors must have an accurate test to use. The test must be reliable in picking up cancers that are there. And it must not give false positive results in people who do not have cancer.
At the moment there is no national screening programme for lung cancer in the UK. For screening to be introduced, we need a test that is simple, quick, not too expensive and not harmful. It is always more cost effective to screen people at high risk, rather than screen everyone. For lung cancer, people who smoke are at higher risk so some trials are seeing whether screening smokers is worthwhile.
Lung cancer is often picked up on chest X-ray. But by the time it is diagnosed this way, it is often quite advanced. Researchers are trying to find other screening tests that may help to diagnose lung cancer earlier. They are looking at a scan called a spiral CT scan and a special type of bronchoscopy for people at high risk of lung cancer.
You can view and print the quick guides for all the pages in the About lung cancer section.
Screening means testing people for early stages of a disease before they have any symptoms. It is an important part of health care for some cancers. Before screening for any type of cancer can be carried out, doctors must have an accurate test to use. The test must be reliable in picking up cancers that are there. And it must not give false positive results in people who do not have cancer.
At the moment there is no national screening programme for lung cancer in the UK. Experts do not consider screening to be a reasonable approach to finding cancer of the lung because of the
- Lack of a sensitive enough test
- Low number of cancers that would be found and
- High costs involved
- Risks of current tests
A UK trial called the Lung-SEARCH study is looking at a way of trying to detect lung cancer at an early stage in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD means lung disease and people with COPD have a higher risk of lung cancer than people in the general population. In the trial, researchers are using 2 new tests, which may be helpful in finding very early signs of lung cancer. One test is called a fluorescence bronchoscopy, which uses blue and white light to examine the lining of the airways. The other is a new type of CT scan called a spiral CT scan.
The MEDLUNG study is looking for a new way of screening for lung cancer in people who are at high risk of lung cancer. People in the study are having tests because they have symptoms that could be due to lung cancer. In the trial, researchers are trying to find substances in the body (biomarkers) that could show that lung cancer is developing before the person has any symptoms. The researchers look at samples of sputum, blood and lung tissue to try and find changes in the cells. The aim of this study is to find a biomarker that doctors may be able to use in the future to screen people for lung cancer.
You can find out more about these trials on our clinical trials database. Pick 'lung' from the drop down menu.
Lung cancer is often picked up on chest X-ray. But by the time it is diagnosed this way, it is often quite advanced. Researchers in the USA are trying to find out whether screening with a type of scan called spiral CT scanning helps to diagnose lung cancer earlier and improve cure rates. This is a large trial, involving more than 50,000 people who have chronic obstructive airways disease and so are at higher risk of lung cancer. It opened in 2002 and closed in 2004. People in the trial are being monitored and data is now being analysed.
Researchers are also investigating a different way of carrying out a test called a bronchoscopy in people at high risk of lung cancer. This is called fluorescence bronchoscopy and involves using blue and white light to examine the lining of the airways. This trial finished recruiting patients in November 2005, and it will be some time before we know the results. It is still early days and at the moment there is no clearly effective test for finding lung cancer in people who do not have any symptoms.
Doctors must also be aware of the potential harm of any screening test. The lungs are very sensitive to radiation and frequent X-rays may cause lung damage. X-rays can also find lung changes that look like cancer and need to be checked by further tests, such as a biopsy, that can cause problems in some people.
For screening to be introduced, we need a test that is simple, quick, not too expensive and not harmful. It is always more cost effective to screen people at high risk, rather than screen everyone. For lung cancer, people who smoke are at higher risk so some trials are seeing whether screening smokers is worthwhile. As soon as you stop smoking, you start to lower your risk. So if you are worried about your risk of lung cancer and you smoke, you might like to look at our giving up smoking page on the news and resources website.
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