It’s been a year since Australia launched its National Lung Cancer Screening Program. Since July 2025, about 100,000 Australians have been screened.

Now, the big question is no longer whether screening is a good idea. It is whether the health system can follow through after the screening results.

As I’ve written about before, there are issues with the process of how patients are followed up and treated, and with having enough staff to safely guide them through this critical time.

Without addressing these and other concerns, the program will find early lung cancers without delivering the full benefit Australians were promised.

Remind me, what’s lung cancer screening?

The National Lung Cancer Screening Program uses low-dose CT scans to look for lung cancer in high-risk people without symptoms.

It is aimed at people aged 50–70 who currently smoke, or have quit in the past ten years, with a smoking history of at least 30 pack-years (for example, one pack a day for 30 years).

The logic is straightforward: find lung cancer earlier, where there is a good chance of a cure and reduce deaths from a disease that remains Australia’s leading cause of cancer deaths.

The need for lung cancer screening is clear. Lung cancer causes more deaths than........

© The Conversation