New research explores what people need to know about lung cancer screening

People at risk of lung cancer need better information about lung cancer screening to help them decide if they should be screened, new research published in the British Medical Journal shows.

Lung cancer screening is a test that looks for early signs of lung cancer in people who are at risk. This is normally people who smoke cigarettes and are older. Screening can have harms as well as benefits, so it is important that people who have screening understand this so they can decide whether to take part.

This study looked at 74 people from London who were at risk of lung cancer, as well as doctors and nurses. The researchers asked them questions to understand what they thought about lung cancer screening. They also asked them what they would like to know about screening.

The study found that many people were very scared of lung cancer and did not know it can be cured. Most people in the study thought that screening was a good thing to do, but did not always know about the harms of screening. They wanted to have enough information so they could make a decision that was right for them, but said too much information could be hard to understand.

This research can help policy makers create the right type of information for people who may want to have lung cancer screening. More research is needed to test different types of information on different groups of people.

Read the article in full.

Read our factsheet on lung cancer.