There are currently no national lung cancer screening programs in place, but new research published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology may change that.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide, with 1.69 million victims in 2015, according to the World Health Organization. A study published in Lancet found that tobacco use is responsible for about 22 percent of cancer deaths.

The team of Canadian researchers that conducted the new study suggested that combining CT screening for multiple conditions with efforts to stop smoking and manage the treatment of non-cancer heart and lung disease, could make screening even more cost-effective.
"With increasing economic pressure from rising drug costs and a strong industry influence, I was attracted to the area of lung cancer screening as a way to harness existing potential within our health care system," Dr. Sonya Cressman of The Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control, said in a statement.

Cressman and her team started by gathering patient-level data from the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial and the Pan-Canadian Early Detection of Lung Cancer Study.

They used that to create an economic model that simulated the costs and benefits of lung cancer screening programs for high-risk patients with a 2 percent or higher chance of developing lung cancer within six years.

The findings revealed that focusing on the high-risk population could reduce the amount of individuals who need to be screened by 80 percent. The cost of screening was calculated to be $20,724 in Canadian dollars per year of life saved — much less than the $100,000 often paid for other cancer interventions.

Screening those at a high risk gives us the chance to prevent and treat a range of tobacco-related illnesses, and could also offer access to care for individuals who could be otherwise stigmatized or segregated from receiving treatment," said Cressman.

Her team also found that the overall cost-effectiveness of the program could significantly improve if the health of the screening population was better. That can be achieved through smoking cessation and managing cardiac care and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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