Achieving our Ambition in Lung: The Potential of Low-Dose CT Screening to Ease the Burden of Lung Cancer

Two years ago today we launched the Lung Ambition Alliance – a collaboration with the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, the Global Lung Cancer Coalition and Guardant Health with a bold vision to accelerate progress in lung cancer and an ambitious first goal to double five-year survival by 2025.

Back then we couldn’t have imagined some of today’s challenges, as the COVID-19 pandemic has unearthed gaps in the healthcare system and dramatically changed the landscape for advancing our priority areas: increasing screening and early diagnosis, delivering innovative medicine and improving the quality of care for people with lung cancer. Growing evidence shows the pandemic is threatening to undo years of progress and this has reminded us of the importance of safeguarding the future sustainability of our health systems.

I’m proud of the meaningful work the Alliance has done over the past two years with active programs across 53 countries and more than 25 grants awarded to advocacy groups funding projects to transform patient care. Together, we’ve established a multi-stakeholder network bringing together scientific societies, the advocacy community and industry to accelerate change in lung cancer.

Early diagnosis is critical to our continued progress – however it is too often not the reality for patients. Investing in early detection of lung cancer is investing in our post-pandemic recovery because lung cancer accounts for the greatest economic and public health burden of all cancers.

Today the Alliance has published a new report highlighting this need: “Lung Cancer Screening: The Cost of Inaction,” outlines a series of recommendations to ultimately reduce lung cancer mortality by increasing adoption of low-dose CT screening in targeted populations worldwide. This has the potential to reduce deaths from lung cancer in high-risk populations by nearly one quarter and help relieve the burden on health systems for the future. The various costs of inaction on lung cancer screening are too great, not just for patients, but for society as a whole. Read more here.