Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
Despite being the leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths, lung cancer screening remains critically underutilized. In 2022, only 18% of eligible adults were screened — compared to 77% for breast cancer and 61% for colorectal cancer. Worse, 62% of eligible adults didn't even know screening was available, and 76% had never discussed their lung cancer risk with a doctor.
Lung cancer is the #1 cancer killer in the U.S., yet its screening rates are nowhere near those of breast or colorectal cancer. Data from 2022 national surveillance datasets, presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting, paint a sobering picture: just 18.1% of the roughly 13.2 million Americans eligible for low-dose CT lung cancer screening actually got screened. By comparison, 76.6% of age-eligible adults were screened for breast cancer and 61.4% for colorectal cancer.
The gaps don't stop at uptake. A full 62% of eligible adults were unaware that lung cancer screening even exists, and 73% had never had a conversation with a clinician about their lung cancer risk. A separate HINTS survey found only 15% of eligible adults discussed screening with a healthcare professional in the past year, with racial and ethnic minorities and uninsured individuals significantly less likely to have those conversations. The American Lung Association's 2026 Lung Health Barometer echoed these findings — only 33% of adults knew low-dose CT screening was available for high-risk individuals.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: Early detection dramatically improves lung cancer outcomes, yet most eligible Americans are being missed — not because screening doesn't work, but because they don't know it exists or no one has brought it up. Closing this gap requires every clinician who sees patients with a smoking history to make screening conversations the default, not the exception.
