Earlier detection saves lives. Better care pathways improve outcomes. The evidence for both continues to grow and yet one message echoed throughout this year’s World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC): the challenge is no longer knowing what needs to happen, but how to make it happen.
That theme ran through nearly every conversation we had in Seoul. Whether the subject was screening, diagnosis, treatment or survivorship, progress increasingly turns on implementation: how to influence policy, how to build the partnerships that drive change, and how to ensure good ideas are backed by the resources to deliver them. These questions sat at the heart of the Network’s two contributions to the conference.
Evidence alone does not create policy
Our pre-conference workshop focused on the practical realities of policy change: how to identify decision-makers, develop compelling policy asks, and respond to challenge with confidence. Health systems differ, but participants described strikingly similar barriers — knowing who to engage, how to align evidence with policy priorities, and how to build momentum for change.
It reinforced something we hold to strongly: evidence alone does not create policy. The skills and confidence to navigate policy environments are just as essential to progress as the data itself.
Policy commitment is not the final step
If the workshop dealt with influence, our educational session took on the barrier that so often stalls progress next: money. Across many sessions and conversations at WCLC, the same question surfaced – how do we translate ambition into funded action?
Our session explored how health priorities are financed, why some initiatives secure investment while others struggle, and how advocates can strengthen the case for lung cancer. The clearest takeaway: financing has to be considered from the outset, not bolted on once the policy recommendations are already written.
Progress depends on collaboration
WCLC was also a reminder that none of this happens in isolation. Progress depends on partnerships between clinicians, researchers, advocates, economists and decision-makers, each bringing expertise the others don’t have.
For the Network, that reaffirms our role within this community. It isn’t simply to develop policy recommendations; it’s to help people access the knowledge, skills and tools to act on them – creating spaces for shared learning, connecting expertise across regions, and supporting stakeholders through the complex journey from evidence to implementation.
The next chapter
Looking ahead to 2027, these lessons will shape how our priorities evolve. We expect to give greater weight to financing across our work, recognising how central sustainable funding is to successful implementation, and to keep building the policy capabilities and regional partnerships that help ensure our policy asks reflect local realities.
We left Seoul optimistic. The challenges haven’t shrunk, but the conversation is evolving, with the focus shifting from ambition to implementation, from ideas to delivery, from knowing what works to working out how to make it happen. That is where we believe the next chapter of lung cancer policy begins.
Our thanks to all the experts who contributed to our sessions and shared their insights throughout the conference.
