NHS England is inviting people most at risk of lung cancer to potentially life-saving screening sessions. Those invited will include current and ex-smokers.
The Targeted Lung Health Check Programme is part of a drive to catch cancer early. The NHS is warning people who have smoked that the checks are vital because lung cancer is particularly difficult to identify in its early stages, according to the Mirror.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS clinical director for cancer, said: "Lung cancer can often be hard to detect at an early stage and so these checks, close to people’s homes, show how the NHS is taking action to find more people with cancer."
The NHS said: "People diagnosed with lung cancer at the earliest stage are nearly 20 times more likely to survive for five years than those whose cancer is caught late."
NHS mobile trucks located at 23 testing sites across the country have diagnosed 600 people with lung cancer earlier than the disease would have been detected. Some 77% of the cancers were identified at stage one or two, which significantly boosts a patient's survival odds.
Smokers or ex-smokers aged 55 to 74 are invited to talk to a healthcare professional for a scan. However, NHS data shows that only 35% of patients invited to be screened attend for a check-up.
Dame Cally Palmer, NHS cancer director, said: "These lung checks can save lives – by going out into communities we find more people who may not have otherwise realised they have lung cancer – with hundreds already diagnosed and hundreds of thousands due to be invited."
Testing trucks are located at easy-to-access community sites such as supermarket car parks, sports and shopping centres. Approximately 1.5 million people are set to be invited by 2024-25 but this should not discourage people from visiting their GP if they are worried or spot any signs themselves.
Professor Johnson said: "We know that some people had concerns seeking help during the pandemic but if you do have a worrying symptom or have been coughing for three weeks or more, please do contact your GP and get checked out."
Bill Simpson, from Nottingham, caught his lung cancer early after he participated in the programme. He told NHS England: "At the initial appointment I was told I needed a CT scan and then a PET scan.
That was when I was told – 'you have lung cancer. However, it’s localised, it’s a very small amount and it hasn’t spread'. One minute you’ve been given a death sentence, the next you’re getting a reprieve, and it comes out in two sentences!
"The whole process, from the initial tests to having the operation and getting out of hospital, took about six weeks. You’re operated on and a couple of days later you can go home. You’re fixed, you’re mended, you feel great! The doctors have said it’s given me ten more years of my life."
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