One of the most successful health interventions now saving lives in Cheshire and Merseyside is the Lung Cancer Screening programme, which is one of the most advanced in the country after being pioneered in Liverpool.
Lung Cancer Screening (LCS), formerly called Targeted Lung Health Checks, has become the latest national NHS cancer screening service and will reach the whole country by 2029. The local LCS programme began in Liverpool, Halton and Knowsley before moving to St Helens and Sefton, and then Warrington and Wirral.
It is currently in Southport and Formby and due to roll out into the rest of Cheshire in 2027 – with full coverage of our subregion a full two years before the national target. Two-year follow-up screening is now taking place in the first phase areas.
The LCS programme aims to detect lung cancer earlier by targeting higher-risk people aged 55 to 74 who smoke or previously smoked. Since launching in Cheshire and Merseyside in 2021, around 195,000 people have been invited for a check, and 61,000 higher risk people have been given a low-dose CT scan at a local mobile unit.
To date, 765 lung cancers have been identified in Cheshire and Merseyside since launch with around 80% diagnosed early when treatment with curative intent can be offered.
Delivery of the programme is supported by Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance, the ICB, Place teams, primary care and Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (UHLG).
For more information on LCS see Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital | Lung Cancer Screening.
