St Vincent's early lung cancer screening program recommended for national roll-out

28 Oct 2022

In 2018 St Vincent’s was among a handful of hospitals that commenced a robust research program using low dose CT scanning to detect lung cancer at very early stages.

In its infancy, lung cancer can be curable but most of the time early lung cancer does not cause symptoms and is therefore ‘invisible’. As a result, lung cancer has often spread outside the lung by the time it causes symptoms and is diagnosed, presenting a much poorer prognosis.

But research shows that CT scans can detect early stage lung cancers before they have spread so that surgery can be offered as a curative treatment.

As part of this project, St Vincent’s began working with other hospitals across Australia and internationally to implement this screening program and improve ways to diagnose lung cancer early,

Dr Emily Stone, St Vincent’s Respiratory Specialist says that since commencement of the program, there have been some major developments in how the disease is being managed.

One of the key issues that has been identified, is the ongoing stigma attached to lung cancer, which is often associated with smoking, despite the fact that a third of all lung cancer cases are in people who have never smoked.

In fact data from recent Asian studies, which screened people who have never smoked, suggests that air pollution and possibly genetics may be significant implicating factors for the disease.

“Some very new data was presented in a recent European conference that suggested underlying genetic susceptibilities to the effects of air pollution,” Dr Stone says.

“We put a lot of effort into trying to make it clear that for people who smoke, it’s not their fault,” Dr Stone says. “It’s the same with young people who vape.

Dr Stone says the while there is a national push to reduce smoking rates, there is also now the “very real threat of nicotine addiction among young people through unrestricted vaping”.

Early screening has also led to developments in clinical practice and disease management, with new data telling clinicians what treatments are needed.

“We are trying to do less and less invasive surgery and take less lung out for small cancers,” she says. “And there is new information on when to use immunotherapy and who it will help,” said Dr Stone.

Recently the Federal Government’s Medical Services Advisory Committee made a recommendation for a national lung cancer screening program, much like the St Vincent’s program. If it is adopted, it is expected to change clinical practice for the 12,000 Australians diagnosed with lung cancer every year.

For more information about the St Vincent’s early lung cancer screening program, click here.

emily stone

Dr Emily Stone