Lung Cancer and Screening

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in Ireland – this effect is largely driven by late diagnosis, where 4 in 5 patients are diagnosed with late stage disease. On the contrary, early-stage lung cancer has cure rates of 80-90% with surgery or radiation treatment. Clinical trials from both Europe and the US have demonstrated that lung cancer screening with low-dose CT is associated with a 20% reduction in lung-cancer specific mortality. Despite this evidence, only 2 countries in the EU have national screening programmes.

What is the Lung Health Check?

We are proud to be leading Ireland’s first lung-cancer screening pilot (Principal Investigator: Prof J Naidoo, RCSI/Beaumont; Clinical Lead: Prof D Ryan, Primary care Lead: Prof P Redmond), which aims to save lives by diagnosing lung cancer early – funded through clinician-led research grants from the European Union (EU4Health programme) and the Irish Cancer Society. To lead this effort, we developed Ireland’s first multidisciplinary team for lung cancer screening including GPs, patients, respiratory consultants, surgeons, radiologists and hospital management. With this team, we designed a community-based lung cancer screening pilot using a mobile low-dose CT truck, and invited 22,000 participants with the goal of enrolling 2183 eligible participants over the course of 1 year in the North Dublin/Co. Louth area. Eligibility for the screening pilot is based on meeting high-risk criteria for lung cancer which indicate that the benefits of the low dose CT, outweighs harms. In our study, we are using the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Risk score and the Liverpool Lung Project Score. The pilot commenced on May 19^th of 2025. The project is supported through a key collaboration with primary care providers (Centric Health), thoracic surgery (Trinity St. James’s Cancer Institute), the National Screening Service (NSS) and Alliance Medical.

What is Involved?

The ‘Lung Health Check’ involves low-dose CT but also a comprehensive assessment of lung health including symptom questionaries, breathing tests (spirometry), smoking advice (if currently smoking) and optional blood/breath/sputum collection for future research. If a suspected lung cancer is identified, participants are seen within 2 weeks at one of our dedicated rapid access lung cancer clinics (Beaumont Hospital or Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital). For those without signs of lung cancer, they have a follow-up imaging in 1 years’ time. In the event that a non-lung cancer finding is identified (for example in the heart or the thyroid gland that can sometimes be seen on lung CT scans), cases are discussed at dedicated lung cancer screening multidisciplinary team meetings at Beaumont Hospital. If required, further referrals are made directly from the study team in Beaumont Hospital to tertiary care. Primary care physicians are updated with CT scan results and any other necessary tests/investigations.

Future Directions

Thus far, the study is progressing with over 1000 participants recruited to date. Early results indicate excellent community engagement with participation rates of 70-75%. We expect to complete enrolment in Q1 of 2026. We expect completion of all screening scans by Q2 2027. We ultimately hope that our work will be a catalyst to the development of a national lung cancer screening programme in Ireland.