Certain patients will be able to have a “full NCT” of their lungs in a bid to catch lung cancer earlier and prevent deaths from the disease under a new pilot screening programme in the east of the country.
On Wednesday, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) announced what it has called Ireland’s largest-ever single investment in lung cancer research, with a €4.9 million partnership between the Irish Cancer Society and the Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre.
Under the pilot, those working on the programme will work with GPs in north Dublin and Louth to determine which patients are most at risk of developing lung cancer or other diseases.
These patients will then attend a mobile lung health-check unit where they are examined and given a CT scan. If any abnormalities are detected, they will receive the necessary care.
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The programme is expected to begin seeing patients in January, and will partner with local GAA clubs to provide parking for the mobile unit, making it more accessible to those who may not wish to attend a hospital.
Jarushka Naidoo, professor of medical oncology at RCSI and the programme lead, said lung cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Ireland, but has the highest number of cancer-related deaths.
“It has more deaths than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. And it’s been like that for 30 years or more,” she said.
“If we wait for a person to develop symptoms, in 83 per cent of cases they have highly advanced lung cancer and are likely to succumb to the disease. But when it’s picked up at an earlier stage, 90 per cent of people are alive after five years.”
Averil Power, chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society, said they are “absolutely delighted” to be able to fund this “game-changing” programme that could “save thousands of lives”.
“We provided the initial funding for bowel screening, and we now have BowelCheck, a national bowel screening programme. The hope is this will be the same and will lead, in time, to a national screening programme,” she said.
Seamus Cotter was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2016, without very many symptoms indicating he had the disease.
“Your world stops. You don’t know where to look or what to do. The diagnosis was a bit of a surprise and we were quite fearful about the future,” the now 54-year-old said.
He was fortunate, he said, to get a place on a clinical trial in University Hospital Galway. “But early detection is a huge advancement. It’s a turning point in lung cancer, which could allow earlier diagnosis and better treatment options.”
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