How to Translate Quality Standards Into Good Lung Cancer Screening Programmes: The UK Experience

Randomised controlled trials have shown that early detection of lung cancer by low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) reduces lung cancer and all-cause mortality. This, and a detailed health economics evaluation, led to a recommendation in September 2022 by the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) that all four UK nations move towards implementation of a targeted lung cancer screening programme. The National Health Service England (NHSE) Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) programme launched in 2019 and has been adopted as the national screening programme in England with national rollout expected to be complete in 2030. Given the complexities of lung cancer screening, a comprehensive protocol and linked quality assurance standard were developed to provide a mechanism to ensure uniform and regulated implementation of a high-quality programme. This review will describe the importance of quality assurance and show how this works in a national programme.