Julie Williams started smoking when she was a teenager; at 14, she was paid in cigarettes to do her mother’s ironing. Now 67 years old, Williams was among the first in Wales to receive a lung health check to detect early signs of cancer as a result of her former habit. However, according to a charity, screening in Wales lags behind developments made in England. Tenovus has helped fund a pilot for 500 patients to be screened in north Rhondda, an area where rates of lung cancer and smoking are high.
The pilot aims to help determine how the NHS should deliver targeted lung cancer screening and could potentially detect between five and 15 cases of cancer out of the 500 people scanned. The UK National Screening Committee last year recommended this type of screening to detect lung cancer, which currently affects more people than bowel or breast cancer. In July, Welsh Health Minister Eluned Morgan stated that the recommendation had been accepted “in principle”.
Though cases of the disease across Wales have fallen by half over 20 years, and survival rates have improved, they remain higher than the Welsh average in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board area, where the pilot is taking place. Dr Sinan Eccles, clinical lead for lung health checks for the Wales Cancer Network, described lung screening as “the number one thing we could do to reduce inequality in cancer death”.
If detected at an early stage, lung cancer is much easier and more successful to treat. Evidence suggests that screening could detect three-quarters of cases at an early stage. Dr Bikram Choudhary, a GP involved in patient identification for the trial said that the initiative could allow the Welsh NHS to “become more proactive and actually have a health service that can prevent and cure disease much more than it currently does”
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