With more than 46,000 cases each year, lung cancer is the fourth most common disease in France, causing an annual 33,000 deaths -- almost as many as from COVID-19, the union stated. Several studies have shown the benefits of screening, including the NELSON study, which revealed that low-dose CT performed on at-risk individuals allows early detection and a reduction in mortality of 25% in men and 40% in women.

In the last few years the FNMR, which has given its wholehearted support to breast cancer screening in France, has unsuccessfully asked for the implementation of regional studies in at-risk patients. It now urgently requests that the French authorities get behind the initiative. The first national lockdown revealed that cancer cases increased in both number and seriousness due to a lack of screening. Therefore, given this is the month of lung cancer awareness, the FNMR hopes for rapid lung cancer screening implementation.