Spotlight on lung cancer screening: the latest research from the ERS Congress

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer. As with all cancers, survival rates are much higher when it is caught early.  Lung cancer screening programmes aim to find cancer at an earlier stage when there are more treatment options available.  

As lung cancer screening programmes are starting to be implemented across the globe, experts have shared the latest evidence on screening and the best ways to deliver effective screening programmes at the ERS Congress 2024, which took place in Vienna in September. 

The sessions included results from the EU-funded SOLACE project, which is working towards the goal of implementing lung cancer screening programmes across Europe.  

The project, which will run until April 2026, will provide a toolkit to support countries to design and begin offering lung cancer screening programmes to their citizens. There will be a focus on reaching groups that are at a higher risk due to health inequalities, including women and people living with other long-term conditions.  

SOLACE at the ERS Congress  

In a poster session, Iris-Theodora Vlachantoni, from the Greek SOLACE team, shared their results from the first large-scale, targeted-population screening project in the country to date. The first participant enrolled in May 2024, and since then, 120 individuals have come forward and 67 low-dose CT scans (LDCTs) have already been carried out. Find out more about the results so far.  

In a session looking at the existing situation of lung cancer screening in Europe, Joanna Chorostowska-Wynimko from the SOLACE coordination team, provided up-to-date data on screening in European countries, looking at where the gaps are. This paved the way for Torsten Blum, another member of the SOLACE coordination team, to discuss guidelines in the European setting. The talk looked at how to tailor the recommendations to fit different countries.  

A separate session focused on lung nodules. These are small growths that may look like a shadow or spot on the lung on the CT scan. They are very common and the aim of screening is to identify any nodules that could be cancerous.  

Martina Koziar Vašáková is the SOLACE Work Package 6 leader, and she spoke about the challenge of finding cancerous lung nodules in people who are already living with lung conditions, such as pulmonary fibrosis. For these people, they are already receiving regular CT scans, but it can be a challenge for healthcare professionals to spot a cancerous nodule from the scarring caused by this condition, which is visible on the scans. Professor Vašáková called for more to more effective ways to ensure this group of people was not overlooked when we work towards the aim of detecting lung cancer at an earlier stage.  

This research and its discussions will feed into the work of SOLACE and provide valuable learning on how best to implement a cost-effective screening programme for lung cancer and the best techniques for reaching out to groups that are at particularly high risk.  

Find out more about SOLACE.