Lung cancer study confirms benefits of screening across socioeconomic groups

Professor Stephen Duffy from the Wolfson Institute of Population Health and colleagues from the University of Liverpool have published the first study in the UK to demonstrate the benefits of lung cancer screening across socioeconomic groups. The new study illustrated the value and importance of screening, especially for those who live in areas of economic deprivation.

Lung cancer affects the lives of about 40,000 people a year in the UK and previous research from Liverpool researchers illustrate the unequivocal benefit of lung cancer screening in identified high risk groups.

The new study, published in Lancet Regional Health Europe, assessed the impact of socioeconomic status on a variety of aspects, including initial recruitment, selection for screening, lung cancer detection, and long-term mortality benefit from lung cancer and other diseases. It showed that those from a lower socioeconomic group benefited from low-dose-CT screening in terms of lung cancer survival to the same extent as those from more affluent groups. The study also showed that conditions COPD and emphysema, both of which disproportionately affect lower socioeconomic groups, were less often the cause of death when subjects received a low-dose CT lung screening.

Professor Stephen Duffy, Lead of the Centre for Prevention, Detection and Diagnosis in the Wolfson Institute of Population Health: “These results indicate the potential for lung cancer screening to address some serious inequalities in health. As the targeted programme is rolled out nationally, we need to make an effort to deliver the service to those deprived populations who need it most.”

Professor John Field, Professor of Molecular Oncology, University of Liverpool and lead author on the paper said: “The impact of low-dose CT lung cancer screening has been previously demonstrated in a number of international clinical trials, including the UKLS study here in the UK. However, this is the first time that the long-term impact of risk-stratified lung cancer screening has been compared across different socioeconomic groups, demonstrating that those disadvantaged groups at the greatest risk of developing the disease benefit as much as those in less deprived areas.”