Radiology abnormality detection systems and lung cancer

Lung cancer is the third most diagnosed cancer in England and accounts for the most deaths. It also has one of the lowest survival rates in Europe at only 16% after a five-year period. It is estimated 30% of patients die within 90 days of diagnosis due to the late stage of disease at diagnosis¹. Early diagnosis, that is, detecting a cancer with a lower staging and, therefore, receiving a better prognosis, is not common in lung cancer – in 2019 only 27% of lung cancers received an early diagnosis². A fundamental reason for this is that lung cancer symptoms are nonspecific until late into the disease and can mimic other pathologies, such as pneumonia¹.

In 2021, to improve the bleak statistics, NHS England²introduced a faster diagnosis lung cancer pathway. The principle of the pathway is to...