Research and clinical trials
Go to Cancer Research UK’s clinical trials database if you are looking for a trial for lung cancer in the UK. You need to talk to your specialist if there are any trials that you think you might be able to take part in.
All cancer treatments must be fully researched before they can be used for everyone. This is so we can be sure that:
they work
they work better than the treatments already available
they are safe
To make sure the research is accurate, each trial has certain entry conditions for who can take part. These are different for each trial.
Hospitals do not take part in every clinical trial. Some trials are only done in a small number of hospitals, or in one area of the country. You may need to travel quite far if you take part in these trials.
Screening means testing people for early stages of a disease. This is before they have any symptoms. In the UK, the National Screening Committee recommends inviting people at high risk of lung cancer to screening. This is called targeted lung cancer screening.
When it’s up and running, everyone aged between 55 and 74 who either smokes or used to smoke will get an invite for an assessment. If this shows that you are at high risk of lung cancer, you will be offered a low dose CT scan of the lungs.
Some people have been invited for Lung Health Checks in parts of England since the Autumn of 2019. This will continue while the screening programme is being introduced.
Find out more about Lung Health Checks
Other research projects on lung health checks are taking place in other areas of England.
Researchers are also looking into the psychological impact of lung screening. They hope to guide healthcare professionals to promote people’s well being and minimise distress and worry.
Find out more about screening for lung cancer
Researchers are looking for proteins in blood, breath, urine and tissue samples to see if any are linked to lung cancer. They hope to one day develop a blood or urine test to show up these proteins () to:
diagnose lung cancer more easily
spot lung cancer earlier if it comes back after treatment
Researchers at the University of Exeter have developed electronic risk assessment tools (eRATs). This is to help GPs identify possible cancers. The eRATS looks at any symptoms in your medical records. It calculates your risk of getting cancer. It doesn’t mean that you definitely have cancer.
In this study, the researchers are comparing eRATs with the usual care to find:
if using eRATs diagnoses cancer at an earlier stage
if it reduces the cost to the NHS
out how using eRATs might affect patients views of care and their quality of life
Researchers are looking at scans, blood tests and lung fluid tests to improve diagnosis for people with fluid in the lung lining () or thickening of the lung lining. Having fluid in the lining of your lung is a common condition. It could be a symptom of many other conditions, including lung cancer.
Doctors want to improve how they diagnose the cause of fluid or thickening in the lung lining. If used at the right time, people may need fewer tests and can be given the correct treatment sooner.
The main aim of this study is to build a new pathway of investigation. This will help doctors to diagnose the cause of conditions where the lung lining has thickened or collected fluid.
In this study, researchers are taking blood samples and tissue swabs from inside the nose of people who are taking part in a lung health check programme. This is, for example, the NHS Lung Health Checks. The study is for people from Manchester, Southampton and Yorkshire in the UK.
As part of the NHS Lung Health Check, you might have a of the lungs. The researchers want to find out whether using these samples, as well as the CT scan results, helps improve lung cancer diagnosis.
Researchers are developing and testing a computer programme to help diagnose lung cancer earlier. It is for people who have had a CT scan as part of the NHS Lung Health Checks. A CT scan is for those at higher risk.
The researchers want to improve Lung Health Checks further and help the NHS to make them available to more people. To do this, they are using a computer programme to look at lung nodules on CT scans. The researchers hope it can:
identify nodules that are not cancer and are harmless
speed up the time to diagnose early lung cancer
reduce the need for other tests such as tissue samples
allow the NHS to reach many more people for Lung Health Checks
In this study, researchers collect blood and tissue samples from lung cancer patients. It is also for people suspected of having lung cancer. It is open to people who took part in the:
or the NHS targeted lung check programme
In the ASCENT study, the researchers take blood samples. They also take a piece of the lung tissue that the surgeon removes during surgery. They use these samples to look at the of the cancer cells and .
They also look at the results of any scans or tests you have from the time of screening to surgery. The team want to see if they can identify patterns that might suggest lung cancer. They hope that by doing this in the future, doctors can better understand and diagnose lung cancer.
In this study, doctors use a robot to biopsy small, hard-to-reach lung . This can help people with suspected lung cancer get diagnosed much earlier.
The robot is called the Ion Endoluminal System (Ion). It helps doctors to insert a thin and flexible tube into your lung through the mouth. It can reach lung nodules that might be cancer.
The robot is more accurate and precise than existing techniques. So lung nodules which may otherwise have been monitored for long periods, can now be diagnosed earlier with this type of biopsy.
Using the robot to do a biopsy is also less invasive and has fewer risks. This is compared with the usual technique of inserting a needle from outside the body into the lungs.
Find out more about trials looking into diagnosing lung cancer
Researchers are looking at developing a new blood test. This test is to diagnose another cancer after having had treatment for non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It is open to people who had treatment at least 2 years ago to cure their primary lung cancer. People who had NSCLC have a greater chance of developing another primary cancer.
In this study, the researchers will take blood samples. They want to develop a test. The test looks for bits of cancer that might be in the blood. The researchers also want to know how:
long after treatment another primary cancer develops
well they can detect cancers before symptoms appear or when the cancer is coming back
Last reviewed: 07 Mar 2023
Next review due: 07 Mar 2026
Current research is looking at ways to improve the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.
You usually start by seeing your GP, and they might refer you to a specialist and organise tests. Or you might be referred to a specialist and further tests if screening for lung cancer or a lung health check showed that you might have lung cancer.
There is support available during and after treatment to help you cope. This includes support from your clinical nurse specialist, cancer charities, community services, and family and friends.
Lung cancer starts in the windpipe (trachea), the main airway (bronchus) or the lung tissue. Cancer that starts in the lung is called primary lung cancer.
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