As the first full week of the new year draws to a close, we’ve been thinking about the year ahead and what we want to achieve in the coming 12 months.
Here are our ambitions for 2025…
Improve early detection beyond screening
Screening is helping more people get diagnosed earlier than ever before.
However, with more than half of lung cancers arising in people who aren’t eligible for screening and only around half of those who are eligible choosing to participate, we need to do more. We need to improve early detection amongst those with symptoms. This is key to transforming long-term survival.
On 27th December, the British Journal of General Practice published our recommendations to improve early detection in symptomatic patients. The recommendations include:
- Allowing people with potential lung cancer symptoms, such as a persistent cough, to be able to request their own chest x-ray without first having to see a GP.
- Making data available on how many chest x-rays GP practices are requesting each year
- Calling for people to check symptoms and even book tests via the NHS app.
In 2025, we will work with key healthcare professionals from across the lung cancer pathway to campaign for the implementation of our recommendations.
Provide support for everyone affected by lung cancer in the way that’s right for them
This isn’t a new resolution. Providing help and support is at the heart of what we do every day. Our aim for 2025 is to grow and improve these vital lifelines so more people.
In the next couple of months, we’re launching two new online support sessions – Managing treatment and Surgery support. These will run alongside our established sessions – Living with lung cancer, Carers support and Body breathing.
We’re also looking at hosting more information days, with plans already confirmed for Cardiff (19 Feb), North London (17 Mar), Leicester (14 May) and Liverpool (25 May) as well as plans underway in Belfast, Inverness, Edinburgh, Wrexham, Newcastle, Hartlepool, Birmingham, Winchester, Basingstoke and Leeds.
Plus, in the next few weeks, we’ll be launching our new website to make it even easier to find information, support and ways to get involved.
Ensure all patients have access to genomic testing – and quickly!
Advances in treatments for lung cancer have improved significantly over the past few years. We no longer rely on ‘off the shelf’ chemotherapy to treat lung cancer. Instead, treatments are now far more personalised to individuals and the specific type of lung cancer they have.
However, not everyone is benefitting from these new targeted therapies. Delays to genetic testing – or lack of testing altogether – is severely impacting on lung cancer patients across the UK, denying them the chance of life-lengthening treatment and a better quality of life.
Last year, we met with the former Health Minister, Victoria Atkins, National Clinical Director for Cancer, Professor Peter Johnson and Senior Responsible Officer for Genomics in NHS England, Professor Dame Sue Hill to discuss the issues patients are facing.
Unfortunately, the change in government has stalled these conversations but we aim to work with the new government and NHS to ensure diagnostic testing is carried out and results received within 14 days for all patients UK-wide so everyone receives the very best treatment.
Develop the next generation of lung cancer researchers
Later this month, the window closes on applications for our latest round of Clinical Research Fellowships.
Our fellowships have a proven track record in developing and nurturing the next generation of lung cancer researchers, with the aim at improving outcomes for people at risk of lung cancer and for those living with the disease.
Dr Emma O’Dowd was our first research fellow back in 2012. Since completing her fellowship, Dr O’Dowd has led her own research project, again funded by us. The DECLINE project examined why people turn down potentially curative treatment.
And just last year, Dr O’Dowd proudly became a charity trustee and spokesperson, appearing alongside Fiona Castle on the BBC Breakfast to mark the achievements of the charity over the past 30 years.
As soon as we’ve awarded our new fellowships, we’ll introduce you to our researchers and how they plan to make a difference.
Screen more. Save more lives.
As 2024 drew to a close, over 2 million people had been invited for screening. Almost a million people had had the initial lung health check and over 400,000 had had a scan. Over 5,200 people have been diagnosed with lung cancer, with 75% of those caught at stages 1 and 2.
Throughout 2025, we want these numbers to continue to rise, with more and more people given the chance to live beyond a lung cancer diagnosis.
We are working with many NHS trusts to improve awareness of screening and its benefits to ensure everyone invited takes up the opportunity.
Our community engagement events calendar is already filling up with events from the Northeast, down to Kent and Medway.
It’s also our aim to see screening made available to people in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In November 2024, we co-hosted a lung cancer screening roundtable event at the Northern Ireland Assembly. Shortly afterwards, Queen’s University Belfast secured a significant grant to lead a groundbreaking project aimed at establishing lung cancer screening programmes across the country.
We are very excited for the year ahead and, if we can achieve our new year’s resolutions, it will be a very successful and positive year in our fight against lung cancer.