Lapin

Lung cancer screening And Prevention Internationally

 In Europe, as well as in the US, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Lung cancer incidence is concentrated among those at an identifiable high risk, notably by (past) exposure to tobacco. In light of favorable reductions in mortality in trial settings, the council of the EU recommend member states evaluate the feasibility and implementation of regular lung cancer screening (LCS) with Computed Tomography. 

To date, CT coverage is challenging, while many issues in implementing a targeted program remain: best scoping and recruitment of the target population, setting the correct risk threshold for balancing harms to benefits, capacity considerations, optimal smoking cessation interventions, and detailed budget- and health impact analyses per country. Additionally, exposure to non-tobacco risk factors differs by population.

The aim of LAPIN (Lung cancer screening And Prevention INternationally) is to fill the existing EU MS knowledge gap of cumulative tobacco exposure, associated lung cancer risk, and potential lung cancer screening eligibility. Secondary objectives of this project include the consolidation of best practices from early European implementation efforts, and guidance on the risk identification and potential screening of the moderate-risk population, particularly those with non-tobacco risk factors such as residential radon. 

More specific, the objectives of LAPIN are:

• Generation of a European Smoking History Generator (EU-SHG)
• Optimizing best practices in organised lung cancer screening programs
• Lung cancer epidemiology forecasts using cohort tobacco exposure models and scenario analyses of screening implementation
• Characterisation of the moderate-risk lung cancer population, focusing on residential radon exposure.

The LAPIN project started on 1 November 2025 and has a total duration of 18 months until 30 April 2027. This project has received funding from the European Union’s EU4H programme under Grant Agreement No. 101248810. The overall budget is €833,143.73 with an EU contribution of €499,011.19. The project consortium consist of 8 partners and 2 associated partners.