Health analyzes the feasibility of launching lung cancer screening programs

This cause commits us all. Because "Lung cancer is the fourth most common in Spain," he highlighted. darias, who recalled that in 2021 alone, up to 29.000 new cases of lung cancer will have been diagnosed in Spain, according to the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology. The minister of Health has emphasized the high lethality of lung cancer, a disease from which, every 20 minutes, one person dies in Spain; something that happens, among other reasons, because 80% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed late.

Meanwhile "We are working on the prevention of cancer. Avoiding the appearance of cancer through prevention is the most desirable scenario," she explained, recalling that The Ministry is already working on promoting healthy lifestyles and primary care and smoking cessation policies; a "key" aspect in the fight against lung cancer.

Finally, he reiterated that It is "a very important public health problem" which requires an alliance between public administrations, patients, the scientific community and industry. "If we join forces, we will end lung cancer sooner rather than later. Because together we are stronger and together we save more lives," he concluded.

Continuing with the idea of ​​prevention, the Minister of Health of the Community of Madrid, Enrique Ruiz-Escudero, which closed the day, has stressed that "prevention is the key to avoiding new cases of lung cancer and, therefore, Public Health, Primary Care and Hospitals work in a coordinated manner.

In this conference, which brought together health experts, scientific societies, patient associations and institutional representatives, the Lung Ambition Alliance has addressed a first pillar based on early diagnosis. The group of experts trusts that the implementation of a screening system in Spain as a strategy to detect lung cancer early is key, for survival, since more than 80% of these patients will still be alive at 5 years.

From AstraZeneca, one of the four international organizations that founded this initiative, Marta Moreno, director of Corporate Affairs and Market Access of the company in Spain, He recalled that the importance of promoting a day like this comes from his "spirit of commitment to lung cancer."

"We have invited many interlocutors related to the approach to pathology in our country to share their experience and ideas for improvement for the benefit of the patient. Our role is to promote the main objective of the Lung Ambition Alliance initiative, based on breaking current barriers and double five-year survival in lung cancer patients by 2025. A goal that we know is ambitious, but that we trust is achievable," he added.

Specific screening programs would save lives

With the other partners of the Lung Ambition Alliance (LAA), AstraZeneca has worked with the Health Policy Partnership to develop the report 'Screening in lung cancer: The cost of inaction', which calls on governments to implement targeted and widespread screening programs to help improve lung cancer survival and reduce the cost burden on healthcare systems.

This report shows thate a quarter of deaths in high-risk populations worldwide could be avoided using targeted screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) based on results from the NELSON study.

Furthermore, it analyzes the cost-effectiveness of early diagnosis and concludes that The chances of survival of patients diagnosed in Stage I are between 68 and 92%, compared to less than 10% when diagnosed in Stage IV and the cost increases the later the disease is diagnosed, due to the increase in hospital admissions, increase in treatment rounds, need for additional care and need for palliative care.

In Europe, the loss of productivity due to premature mortality from lung cancer costs 10 billion euros per year and Fewer tests are needed to diagnose it than other types of cancer such as breast or colorectal, so the NELSON study found that for every 320 LDCT scans administered, one life could be saved compared to 864 tests for colorectal cancer and between 645 and 1.724 scans for breast cancer.

Lung cancer causes 1,8 million deaths a year worldwide and carries the greatest economic burden of all cancers, costing €18.800 billion a year in Europe alone. In this sense, it is worth noting that in Spain around 29.000 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year.

This neoplasia stands out among the tumors with the worst prognosis due to both its aggressiveness and the difficulty involved in making an early diagnosis of it, and most cases are diagnosed when the tumor cannot be operated on, a fact that entails one of the worst survival results.

Awards for research and innovation

On the other hand, within the framework of the meeting, the awards for the First Call for Research and Innovation Projects for the early detection of lung cancer in Spain, with the aim of generating new knowledge for the early detection of lung cancer, including the development of new, more cost-effective early detection and lung cancer screening systems.

El prize from the I Call for Research Projects for the early detection of lung cancer in Spain, to the project 'New biomarkers for the personalized determination of the risk of cancer lung in low-dose CT screening protocols: development and validation of high-sensitivity protein signatures in combination with radiomics analysis'. Presented by doctor Luis Montuenga, senior researcher at Cima University of Navarra, group leader of the Cancer CIBER (CIBERONC) and dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Navarra together with the researcher Gorka Bastarrika Alemañ.

And that of the I Call for Innovation Projects for the early detection of lung cancer in Spain, at 'Radiomics and radiogenomics in lung cancer screening - RADIOLUNG' project presented by doctor Antoni Rosell Gratacós from the Germans Trias i Pujol Health Sciences Research Institute Foundation (IGTP) -Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital.

The project selected in the category of Research will obtain financial financing for the project 60.000 euros for 3 years. In the case of the category of Innovation, the amount of financing amounts to 30.000 euros for one year.