In a Liverpool Daily Post article dated 9 January, the possible development of a future national lung cancer screening programme is acknowledged. Researchers at the University of Liverpool will begin a study to assess the feasibility of implementing a broad-based, national screening trial for lung cancer. The study has been commissioned by the National institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme.
With Lung cancer being diagnosed in around 38,000 individuals in the UK each year and killing around 1.4 million people worldwide, new preventative measures being developed by Liverpool scientists could save lives.
“The number of deaths from lung cancer has fallen in past years in the UK and this is likely to be due to a decline in tobacco smoking, and possibly greater public awareness. However, there is a large ex-smoking population, who remain at high risk of developing lung cancer,” says lead researcher Professor John Field, director of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Research Programme, at the University of Liverpool.
“Screening to detect the disease before patients develop any symptoms is a method that urgently requires evaluation as surgical resection at an early stage of the disease remains the only realistic option for a cure.”
The results of the feasibility study will be used to decide whether a pilot study and subsequently a full clinical trial should be commissioned. This would use computerised tomography (CT) to scan people at high-risk of developing lung cancer, and would look at both the benefits and the harms that could result from such a screening programme.
For more information, read the full university press release and to view the full project details visit www.hta.ac.uk/1752
Content added on 12 January 2009.
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