Mahdi Sheikh, Scientist at International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization, shared a post on X:

“Our editorial in ERS publications with Elisabete Weiderpass.

Lung Cancer screening in Europe is a golden opportunity to tackle tobacco use with scalable, WHO-guided cessation interventions.”

Title: Lung cancer screening in Europe: a golden opportunity to address tobacco use through scalable, WHO-guided cessation interventions

Authors: Mahdi Sheikh, Elisabete Weiderpass

You can read the Full Article on ERS publications

Mahdi Sheikh: Lung Cancer Screening in Europe is a Golden Opportunity to Tackle Tobacco Use with Scalable, WHO-guided Cessation Interventions

“~173 million adults in Europe (25% of the adults) use tobacco = 1.15 million tobacco related deaths (nearly half due to cancer) each year! Europe lags behind. WHO targets on reducing tobacco use (by 30% until 2025). Progress has stopped!

The EU Commission recommends implementing lung cancer screening across Europe. Half of screening participants smoke. Few will screen positive, but many will die from smoking-related diseases if they keep smoking. Screening is a key moment to support cessation.

Benefits of smoking cessation: Decresed Risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, COPD. Better outcomes for those diagnosed with cancer: longer survival, fewer complications, improved quality of life

We propose using the WHO Clinical Treatment Guideline + the RE-AIM framework to implement this effectively.

Guidelines here.”