Targeted lung cancer screening can support earlier diagnosis by identifying people at higher risk of lung cancer before symptoms develop. Primary care teams play an important role in supporting screening, from maintaining accurate patient records to helping patients understand screening and access appropriate support.
Keep up to date on whether rollout of targeted lung cancer screening is available in your region. Information on this is updated regularly on the NHS website.
Familiarise yourself with the eligibility criteria for targeted lung cancer screening (see our steps on how screening works).
Ensure that smoking history is accurately recorded within your patient records to ensure that all eligible patients are invited.
Be familiar with the benefits and risks of lung cancer screening and that risk assessment doesn’t always mean a scan is offered.
Offer smoking cessation support for your patients who currently smoke.
Remember: Patients and primary care teams still need to respond to changes in symptoms that could be caused by lung cancer, even if someone has had a CT scan in the screening program.
Lung screening may identify incidental findings in addition to potential lung cancers. Some incidental findings, particularly those related to cardiovascular health can support national priorities for cardiovascular disease detection and prevention. As a result, in England, standard protocols are in place to guide their reporting and management. As per these protocols:
Any serious and urgent incidental findings will be managed in secondary care, with GPs being copied into standard letters to keep them informed.
Some non-urgent incidental findings may require primary care follow-up, but this should be specifically agreed between screening sites and local primary care structures. Any non-urgent incidental findings that are passed to primary care through these agreements should be communicated clearly.
Clinically non-significant findings do not require any communication to GP or participant.
For Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, we expect further clarification on management of incidental findings and the role of primary care as plans develop.
Where lung cancer screening is available, not everyone invited to initial assessment will meet the threshold for low dose CT. Therefore, GPs will continue to have a crucial role in the diagnosis of lung cancer in symptomatic and high-risk patients.
Resources designed to support GPs diagnose lung cancer early:
GP Insight for Northern Ireland(PDF, 187 KB)
GP Insight for Scotland(PDF, 179 KB)
For further information, visit our supporting the earlier diagnosis of lung cancer page.
Our analysis on the rollout of targeted lung cancer screening in England
Our analysis of how lung cancer screening could save lives in the devolved nations
Find out what lung cancer is, the symptoms to check for and how it can be treated.
Visit our lung cancer information page
Get resources to support uptake, and find out more about targeted lung cancer screening.
Learn what happens at each stage of the targeting lung cancer screening pathway, who is invited, how risk is assessed, and what happens after a scan.
You can contact our Strategic Evidence team if you have any questions.
