Thanks to NHS lung trucks, people in deprived areas are more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer at an earlier stage.
New data shows, that for the first time ever, more than a third of people diagnosed with lung cancer from the most deprived fifth of England were diagnosed at stage one or two in 2022 (34.5 per cent) – up from 30% in 2019.
Lung MOTs launched in 2018 in parts of the country which had the lowest lung cancer survival rates. The checks are carried out in mobile trucks in supermarket carparks. The trucks are now at 43 sites across the country and scan those most at risk from lung cancer, including current and ex-smokers.
The NHS has now teamed up with the Roy Castle Lung Foundation on a new campaign to encourage the hundreds of thousands of people who are invited each month to take up the offer. The campaign will run on social media, through online advertising and on posters in areas where lung checks are operating.
More than 300,000 (313,387) people have already taken up the offer and more than 1,750 (1,779) people have been diagnosed with lung cancer. Over three-quarters (76 per cent) were caught at stage one or two, compared with just a third caught at early stages in 2018.
National director for cancer, Dame Cally Palmer, said: “These findings are incredibly important – they show the power behind targeted health programmes with the NHS continuing its drive to detect cancers earlier by going into the heart of communities that may be less likely to come forward.
“While early diagnosis rates for cancer have traditionally been lower for deprived groups, thanks to the rollout of lung trucks, the NHS has turned a huge corner – and is now finding and treating those who would otherwise have been undetected.
“The NHS will not stop in its efforts to go out and find more cancers at an earlier point, when easier to treat, so if you have had an invite, please take it up, and as ever, if you are showing any signs of cancer, please come forward to your GP – getting checked could save your life”.
Chief executive of Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, Paula Chadwick, said: “It is truly heartening to see the wonderful progress being made in the early detection of lung cancer because of the targeted lung health check programme and these checks are allowing us to get ahead of lung cancer for the first time, catching the disease at the earliest opportunity, often before symptoms even start, and treating it with an aim to cure.
“So many people have already benefitted from having a lung health check but there are also a lot of people who have been invited and not taken up the opportunity, so I urge anyone who receives an invitation to have the check – even if you feel well, even if you have no symptoms, even if you’re convinced there’s nothing wrong! You have been invited for a reason and when it comes to lung cancer, it is always best to check”.
