Today, we’re speaking to Dr Steve Bradley, GP and Senior Clinical Lecturer based within the School of Medicine and Population Health at the University of Sheffield.
Title of paper: General practice chest X-ray rate is associated with earlier lung cancer diagnosis and reduced all-cause mortality: a retrospective observational study
Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2024.0466
The study was funded by Cancer Research UK.
It is known that there is wide variation in the use of chest X-ray (CXR) by general practices, but previous studies have provided conflicting evidence as to whether greater utilisation of them leads to lung cancer being diagnosed at an earlier stage and improves survival. This observational study analysed data from the English national cancer registry on CXR rates for individual general practices, along with stage and survival outcomes; it found earlier stage at diagnosis and improved survival for patients diagnosed with cancer at practices that used the test more frequently. Increasing use of CXR by GPs for symptomatic patients, particularly by focusing on practices that use the test infrequently, could improve lung cancer outcomes.
