2024 reflections:

More people have access to LDCT screening than ever before. This year, four more countries have made a formal commitment to implement LDCT screening for lung cancer, and several implementation studies are under way. The Lung Cancer Policy Network continued to gain momentum this year, working to engage policymakers to meet our mission of making lung cancer a policy priority to improve survival.
 

Major developments in lung cancer

• In England, a new trial has been rolled out to use blood tests to identify key genetic drivers of lung cancer.
• Malaysia has detected its first case of lung cancer using AI.
• After a formal commitment in 2023, Australia has continued to develop its national screening programme. Guidelines are being drafted in consultation with experts and marginalised communities. Services aim to begin in July 2025.
• The Strengthening the Screening of Lung Cancer in Europe (SOLACE) consortium has continued its important work, developing, testing and disseminating tools to help overcome bottlenecks and tackle health inequalities

More developments on the horizon:

• The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that its 2026 Handbook of Cancer Prevention will focus on lung cancer screening; this is a huge step toward getting it on the international policy agenda.
• Germany has approved the use of radiation to detect lung cancer, opening the door for the implementation of a national screening programme.
• The IARC will continue its work on the Integrative Analysis of Lung Cancer Etiology and Risk (INTEGRAL) program, which aims to improve LDCT screening by identifying lung cancer biomarkers. The study is also exploring lung cancer in people who have never smoked, incidence of which is increasing.

Policy insights from Network activities

The Network’s focus this year has been to drive action through evidence. One element of this was an internal survey of Network members to assess their perceptions of readiness for screening implementation in their respective countries. The results showed that ‘low awareness of screening and its benefits’ and ‘no financial investment into lung cancer care, including research, screening and early detection’ were the top two perceived barriers to screening implementation. Clearly, much still needs to be done to demonstrate the burden of lung cancer to policymakers, and to emphasise that implementing screening and other strategies can help detect lung cancer earlier and improve survival.

These challenges were explored in more contextual detail through events the Network hosted this year. In May, we hosted an in-person roundtable that produced recommendations to accelerate the implementation of screening in the Central and Eastern Europe region. Some of the key actions proposed were to:

• seek governmental policy engagement to build support for screening
• share knowledge and best practice from existing programmes to optimise the development of new programmes.

Similar themes emerged at our jointly hosted workshop with the Asia Pacific Coalition Against Lung Cancer at the Asia Conference on Lung Cancer. The event identified some of the actions needed to improve screening implementation in the region:

• Improving awareness of lung cancer and the importance of earlier detection strategies among policymakers.
• Initiating local research on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of screening to inform decision-making.

To help address these challenges, the Network has used evidence-informed recommendations and the Network’s expert member insights to support the engagement of policymakers. As part of this, we developed a suite of policy engagement resources, including FAQs on screening for lung cancer, and concise summaries of existing reports to help inform policymakers about key Network findings.
 

Key achievements in 2024

As well as our ongoing policy engagement activities – including attending and presenting at a number of international conferences – the Network published the following:

• Enhancing the earlier detection of lung cancer: effective management of incidental pulmonary nodules. This report outlines the impact that optimal management of incidental pulmonary nodules (IPNs) can have on the earlier detection of lung cancer, and provides recommendations for policymakers to implement robust management strategies.
• Translations in Arabic, French, Simplified Chinese and Spanish are now available for the Lung cancer screening: learning from implementation report and the implementation toolkit policy briefs, thus maximising their reach and impact.
• Additional resources in the lung cancer screening implementation toolkit and implementation framework guided users through the toolkit, and helped them engage traditionally underserved communities.