At the Forefront of Combatting Lung Cancer: Improving Approaches to Prevention, Early Detection, and Treatment

The early detection of oncological diseases and cancer screening are key goals of the Russian government and an important way to prevent and reduce mortality from cancer by categorizing it as a chronic, manageable status, and thereby reducing the burden of this disease. Lung cancer is the most common type of the disease around in the world and accounts for 12.4% of the total number of new cancer cases. In Russia, statistics show that almost every seventeenth man and every hundredth woman will have to deal with this disease at some point during their lifetime. The World Health Organization’s resolution on lung health in May 2025 noted achievements in lung cancer screening and its effectiveness in reducing mortality rates among high-risk groups. Over the past 10 years, Russia has been conducting research and implementing regional pilot screening projects using low-dose computed tomography for high-risk groups. This has resulted in the decreased detection of advanced forms of the disease and the increased detection of tumours at an early stage. The use of targeted drugs could be a breakthrough solution in lung cancer therapy. Such a strategy is effective in certain cases and requires strict adherence to clinical guidelines, the introduction of clear patient selection criteria, and an improved routing system. What measures need to be introduced and disseminated at the federal level to improve the primary prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lung cancer? How can we ensure the universal availability of lung cancer screening for high-risk groups? What are some of the financial and economic effects of introducing lung cancer screening for high-risk groups into the state guarantees programme in terms of expanding the initial stage of medical examination? How can we ensure the effective use of breakthrough therapies for the treatment of lung cancer?