Screening for lung cancer to be trialled

The charity hopes that the pilot could pave the way for a national screening programme.

Around 1,300 long-term smokers with mild or moderate COPD will be recruited from six hospitals, including Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, Papworth Hospital in Cambridge and the Royal Brompton in London.

Half of the patients will provide a blood sample and sample of phlegm for analysis once a year. If any abnormalities are detected, they will undergo further tests including a spiral CT scan and fluorescence bronchoscopy.

The other half will act as a control group and receive standard care for COPD plus a chest X-ray after five years.

Researchers will assess whether the screening programme identifies enough early-stage cases to make it cost-effective.

Lung cancer has one of the worst survival rates of all cancers, with only 7% of patients still alive five years after diagnosis. Cancer Research UK hopes that, if it can be detected earlier, a five-year survival rate of up to 80% can be achieved.

Lead researcher Professor Stephen Spiro, head of the department of thoracic medicine at University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, said: ‘[Lung cancer] is the UK’s biggest cause of cancer death, with 33,000 patients dying each year.

‘This trial is selectively screening people who are at a high risk of developing lung cancer and we hope this will eventually lead to a nationwide cost-effective screening programme that could save tens of thousands of lives,’ he said.

Sue Cowdy, Macmillan lung cancer nurse specialist at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust, welcomed the trial. ‘We know we could cure more patients if we could diagnose them at an early stage of their disease,’ she said.

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