A lung cancer screening programme set up in 2019 in areas of England hit hardest by the illness has caught 10,678 cases of lung cancer – the majority of which were caught early
More than 10,000 people in England have had lung cancer detected by NHS scanning trucks set up in supermarket car parks, in sports stadiums and on high streets, new figures show.
And more than three quarters of cases were caught early at stages one and two, NHS England said. The trucks form part of the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme which launched in 2019 in areas hardest hit by the disease.
NHS data shows the initiative has picked up 10,678 cases of lung cancer, the majority of which were caught early. Catching the disease in its earliest stages means patients are 13 times more likely to survive for five years compared with those who are diagnosed late, officials said.
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Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, said: “Lung cancer checks and scans save lives, so it’s fantastic the NHS has now diagnosed over 10,000 people – the majority at an early stage, when treatment is most effective.
“The Lung Cancer Screening Programme has been designed around where people already are, bringing scanners into their local communities to make it easier for people to get checked.
“It is great to see the positive public response to this programme, and rolling this out nationwide will help us save even more lives in the future.”
Ken Roberts, 74, from Bolton, was invited for a lung health check when a mobile unit was parked at Morrisons. He had no symptoms, but went along, and a few days later was asked to go for a scan at hospital, where he was later diagnosed with stage one lung cancer which was treatable with surgery.
The grandfather-of-five, who is a manufacturing company director, said: “I ummed and ahhed about whether to go, but in the end I went because it was so convenient, and I could park really easily.
“Now I just feel really lucky that I went for that lung health check as I so nearly didn’t go. And I’m telling everyone to go for theirs when they get the invite.”
Around 50,200 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year, the equivalent of 140 a day. According to the NHS, the nationwide rollout of its programme by 2030 will result in six million people in England being invited for a lung health check. It is expected to diagnose up to 50,000 cases of cancer.
Health Secretary James Murray said: “Catching cancer early is a powerful way to save lives and ensure people live better with cancer, and this programme shows what the NHS can achieve when we take healthcare to people, rather than waiting for them to come to us.
“Under our National Cancer Plan, we want three in four people diagnosed from 2035 to be cancer-free or living well after five years, and earlier diagnosis is crucial to achieving that. I urge anyone who receives an invitation to take it up – it could be the most important thing you do this year.”
