Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title National Lung Cancer Screening Program begins Degree of recognition National Media name/outlet NewsGP Media type Web Country/Territory Australia Date 1/07/25 Description Australia’s first new screening program in 20 years has begun, with GPs at the coalface urged to prepare themselves for the initiative....
RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care Chair Professor Mark Morgan said he is pleased the program model, which was informed by input from the RACGP, has been kept user-friendly for GPs, unlike some ‘complex’ trial models abroad that required doctors to take family histories and other risk factors and weigh them all up in an online calculator.
‘The more approachable and simple decision-making that we’ve gone with here is much easier to use, and allows both patients and their advisors to work out whether or not people are eligible,’ he said....
Professor Morgan said GPs will need to spend time familiarising themselves with the program, particularly caveats that might temporarily preclude otherwise eligible patients from screening, such as recent chest CT scans, or recent infections such as acute bronchitis or pneumonia that would mean a CT scan will find ‘all sorts of leftover signs’ of the infection.
‘It’s not the best timing to have your low-dose CT scan, and this might be quite pertinent at this time of the year,’ he said.
Managing anxiety among patients concerned about scan results will also be an important part of GPs’ involvement in the program, Professor Morgan said, particularly for scans that require follow-up.
‘People will need to be reassured that a further CT scan doesn’t necessarily mean that they have lung cancer; it’s just that they need to be watched more carefully,’ he said.
‘But of course, from an individual, what they might hear is “they found a spot on my lung, and they’re worried about it”, and put their life on hold.
‘There’ll be quite a lot of anxiety and other things for GPs to manage associated with this program.’...
Professor Morgan also advised GPs to check their IT systems can generate request forms for scans, and that their usual radiology services are part of the NLCSP ‘and ready to go’, to ensure patients are not subject to additional stress.
‘Otherwise, it just takes time and creates more uncertainty for patients, if they’re all keyed up to have their scan, but then can’t find somebody to do it,’ he said.
The NLCSP provides a significant opportunity for GPs to have conversations with patients not only about eligibility for screening, but for smoking cessation, Professor Morgan said.
This was particularly relevant for high-risk groups such as people in rural and remote regions – who will benefit from mobile screening trucks delivering services nationally from November – as well as for those living with mental illness.
‘We know that smoking rates are actually higher in some rural and remote areas, and we know that many of the populations that are relatively underserved have high smoking rates,’ Professor Morgan said.
‘For people with serious mental illness, the smoking rate is around 50%, and it may well be quite a long way down the normal priority list for people with serious mental illness to be thinking about joining another screening program. But they are a high-risk group that you’d want to actively engage.’...
Professor Morgan said the program launch will be reflected in an update to the Red Book chapter on lung cancer, due to be published next week and supported by additional training for GPsProducer/Author Jo Roberts URL https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/national-lung-cancer-screening-program-begins?utm_source=racgpnewsgpnewsletter&utm_campaign=newsgpedm&utm_medium=email Persons Mark Morgan