Following our in-person roundtable, ‘Accelerating action: lessons from lung cancer screening in Central and Eastern Europe’, the Network has published a set of key recommendations for implementing low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening in the region.
The event brought together oncologists, pulmonologists, radiologists, screening leads, data scientists, industry representatives, who agreed that targeted screening for lung cancer could significantly decrease mortality, reduce its economic impact, and improve quality of life for those affected by the disease in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.
Discussions at the roundtable generated a key recommendation targeted at policymakers: to build on the updated screening recommendations published by the European Commission in 2022 and, where LDCT screening programmes have not been established, recognise their efficacy and develop a clear roadmap to implementation.
Recommendations for stakeholders involved in screening across the region included:
- to seek governmental policy engagement in order to build support for lung cancer screening
- to share knowledge and best practice from existing screening programmes to optimise the development and implementation of new ones
- to aggregate and analyse existing screening data to demonstrate LDCT screening’s efficacy to policymakers
- to involve general practitioners in the design, implementation and evaluation of a lung cancer screening programme to promote uptake and increase screening implementation success.
The Network hopes that these discussions will act as a starting point for further collaboration. And by working together to make lung cancer a political priority, we believe that these recommendations will promote the implementation of screening across the region, and improve survival from lung cancer. We extend a heartfelt thank-you to those who generously gave their time to participate in the roundtable, both in person and online.
A full event report can also be downloaded here, if you want to learn more about the CEE region, please explore our interactive map. We will also be publishing a case study on the region soon.
Download the key recommendations
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