Lung cancer is the leading cause of UK cancer deaths, largely due to advanced stage at initial presentation.
Approval of National CT screening targeting ‘at-risk’ individuals is expected in the near future.
To further enable earlier lung cancer detection, a few NHS Trusts have initiated ‘Straight to CT’ pathways in the event of a GP-referred chest radiograph (CXR) suspicious for malignancy: on reporting a such a CXR, a Radiologist can directly refer a patient for a CT scan; the GP receives the CXR report and a simultaneous report stating that an urgent CT has been arranged, and patients with CTs consistent with cancer are referred directly to the Lung MDT.
We analysed the impact of the Pathway’s first 18 months at PAH.
PAHT-Abnormal-GP-Chest-X-Ray-Straight-to-CT-Pathway---Sep-2019.