From Medscape, 26 June 2026
The first year of Australia’s lung cancer screening program has seen nearly 100,000 current and former smokers take up the offer of free low-dose CT screening. As a result, more than 230 primary lung cancers have been detected.
The program, which was launched on July 1, 2025, aimed to recruit people aged 50-70 years who were either current heavy smokers or had smoked heavily in the previous decade. These patients would undergo biennial CT scans.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in Australia. It claimed more than 9000 lives in 2022, and around 15,500 new cases are diagnosed each year. Lung cancer is the fifth most common cancer diagnosis in Australia and the leading cancer diagnosis among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, who have a much lower 5-year survival rate from the disease compared with non-Indigenous Australians. Read more.
Bianca Nogrady 