Lung cancer screening

Increasing awareness of screening programme

The Lung Health Check Programme is a new screening programme and as such raising awareness is a key priority. Communications are being developed with local populations and tailored according to local needs. Information is available in a range of commonly spoken languages and appointments can be adapted according to participant’s needs. The Northern Cancer Alliance is disseminating a range of other promotional materials including posters, leaflets and videos.

Experience from the North Tyneside Lung Cancer Case Finding Pilot demonstrated that uptake improved after direct engagement with eligible patients via GP practices. However, given the novelty of the Lung Health Screening Programme, efforts will also need to be made to increase awareness among healthcare professionals to help improve screening uptake.

Prioritising accurate coding of smoking status

Invitations to participate in the Lung Health Check screening programme will be based on accurate coding of current or previous smoking status in individual’s GP records. It is therefore important to review the consistency of smoking status coding across GP practices to try ensure that this does not become a source of inequality in screening offers.

Removing barriers to screening

Known barriers to screening based on evidence from other screening programmes such as bowel and breast cancer screening include:

• Fear and denial around the test outcome
• A misconception that the test is not applicable if you don’t have any apparent symptoms
• Individual perceived risk being low or lack of consideration of future consequences
• Low health literacy and numeracy
• Gender – on the whole males are less likely to take up screening than females
• People from lower socioeconomic groups
• People from ethnic minority groups
• People with learning disability or severe mental illness
• Travel barrier associated with attending CT scan appointment

The Northern Cancer Alliance has begun work to address some of these barriers to screening. People living in the most socio-economically deprived areas will receive their invites first, with invites issued on a practice-by-practice basis. Participant information booklets have been translated into 11 languages and an easy read version has been created. Those who do not speak English as a first language will be able to arrange an appointment with an interpreter present, and individuals with a learning disability are able to have additional support such as bringing a friend or carer or have access to longer appointments.