Luis Miguel Seijo Maceiras.
The 32nd Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) was held from 4 to 6 September, an event where experts from around the world present and discuss the latest scientific and clinical advances in respiratory medicine.
On this occasion, the Luis Miguel Seijo Maceiraspulmonologist, director of Pneumology at the University Clinic of Navarra and Coordinator of the Thoracic Oncology Area of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (Separ) presented ‘Lung Cancer Screening: Time to Move On’.
“The lung cancer screening works, it’s scientific proof “Seijo said at the beginning of his presentation, stating that lung cancer is the deadliest of all cancers and that in Spain alone this disease kills 23,000 people a year, or 20 percent of cancer deaths.
A national project to demonstrate the effectiveness in the SNS
The solution proposed by Seijo, representative of a large and historical national consensus, and in tune with the evolution of the United States and Europe, is the initiative called Cassandra (Cancer Screening, Smoking Cessation and Respiratory Assessment), a pilot project national incorporating low-dose CT radiation as a screening tool combined with smoking cessation, and so on could be implemented in our country in the centers of the National Health System (SNS)involving the hospitals of recognized prestige of all the autonomous communities in close collaboration with primary care.
“This is a project that has the support of scientific societies and patient associations of Spain, a multi-center and multi-company effort, which aims to demonstrate that lung cancer screening in our country is feasible “, comments the specialist.
The institutions involved in the Cassandra project led by Separ are: the Spanish Lung Cancer Group (GEPC), the Spanish Society of Thoracic Surgery (SECT), the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), the Spanish Society of General Practitioners and family (SMG), the Spanish Society of Oncological Radiology (SEOR), the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (Semfyc), the Spanish Society of General Medicine (Semergen), the Spanish Society of Medical Radiology (Seram), the Spanish Association of Pathological Anatomy (Separ-iap), the Spanish Cancer Association (AECC), the Spanish Association of Lung Cancer Patients (AECaP), the Ricky Rubio Foundation and the Cruyff Foundation.
In his presentation, Seijo recalled that both the European Parliament’s special commission for the fight against cancer and the Sapea report (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) of 2022, recognize the paradigm shift involved in lung cancer screening and to urge its implementation in the countries of the European Union with the aim of reducing the mortality associated with this disease
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