Screening

Introduction Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in Australia. In July 2025, the Australian Government launched the National Lung Cancer Screening Program (the Program). The Program has been designed in accordance with the Medical Services Advisory Committee's recommendations. This article summarises the program guidelines, outlining Program parameters and delivery requirements. The screening and assessment pathway defines the Program structure. The purpose of the guidelines is to ensure safe, effective and high-quality Program delivery, detailing key steps for clinical practice and information for participating healthcare providers.Main RecommendationsThe guidelines provide recommendations for the delivery of targeted low-dose CT screening for lung cancer in the Australian context.Program eligibility is assessed using risk-based eligibility criteria recommended by the Medical Services Advisory Committee, targeting people between 50 and 70 years of age with a history of tobacco cigarette smoking.Smoking cessation supports are to be offered to all potential participants by healthcare providers across the lung cancer screening and assessment pathway.Low-dose CT scan assessment and reporting follow the National Lung Cancer Screening Program's nodule management protocol.Changes in Management as a Result of the GuidelineThis guideline provides recommendations for the delivery of targeted low-dose CT screening for lung cancer in the Australian context. Content includes: guidance on assessing Program eligibility; enrolling eligible participants in the National Cancer Screening Register; completing and fulfilling low-dose CT scan requests; assessing and reporting low-dose CT scan results; managing scan outcomes and actionable additional findings; and communicating scan results. The full guideline is available at https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/nlcsp-guidelines.

Nicole M. Rankin, Rebecca Zosel, Lisa J. Whop, Raglan Maddox, Annette McWilliams, Miranda Siemienowicz, Jon Emery, Maria A. R. Lantin, Georgia Bartlett, Mikayla Wolfe, Abbey Diaz, Katrina Anderson, Lillian Liu, Cindy Toms, Sarah McDermott, Peter Bligh, Jeremy Chalke, Stephen Melsom, Claire E. Nightingale, Alison Brown, Sam Pope, Julia Brotherton, Anne Fidler, Michel Itel, Mark Brooke, Diane M. Pascoe, Fraser Brims, Tracy L. Leong, Emily Stone, Dorothy Keefe, Vivienne Milch

Despite Australia's universal breast screening programs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have lower screening participation rates and higher breast cancer mortality. Public health explanations focus on awareness of breast cancer risk and the accessibility of screening, yet these framings often overlook how biomedical screening practices assume a colonial anatomical lens of the body that does not align with Indigenous relational understandings of embodiment. Drawing on Indigenous scholarship, feminist body theory and trauma-aware care, this article argues that breast screening encounters can become sites where bodily sovereignty and biomedical surveillance intersect. Relational, culturally safe, healing-centred and sovereignty-affirming practices, supported by Indigenous-led initiatives, such as culturally designed screening shawls, can transform screening from a clinical encounter into health care that offers a therapeutic relationship built on trust, dignity and informed consent.

Devaleena Das, Jessica Gildersleeve, Amy Thomson, Aunty Gracelyn Smallwood, Lorelle Holland

The RACGP recommend that screening be limited to those at highest risk

Katy Bell MB ChB, MMed(ClinEpi), PhD