Earlier Lung Cancer Detection Starts With Better Care Coordination

Lung cancer remains one of the most significant challenges in cancer care. According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, accounting for roughly one in five cancer deaths. 

One of the biggest challenges is that many cases are not identified until the disease has progressed. National Cancer Institute (NCI) SEER data show that just 24% of lung and bronchus cancers are diagnosed while the disease is still localized, while 51% are diagnosed after distant spread. The difference in outcomes is significant: five-year relative survival is approximately 65.5% for localized disease compared with 10.5% for distant disease. 

Those numbers reinforce why earlier detection matters, but they also point to a challenge healthcare organizations continue to face. Knowing who should be screened and having an effective screening method are not the same as ensuring eligible patients actually complete screening and receive appropriate follow-up. Closing that gap requires attention to what happens throughout the patient journey. 

Earlier Detection Can Change the Trajectory 

Because lung cancer can develop before noticeable symptoms prompt evaluation, screening offers an opportunity to identify disease at an earlier stage. The recommended screening test is low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), which uses a relatively low amount of radiation to create detailed images of the lungs. 

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends annual LDCT screening for adults ages 50 to 80 who have at least a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years. Evidence supporting this approach is well established. The National Lung Screening Trial found that LDCT screening among high-risk participants reduced lung cancer mortality by approximately 20% compared with chest radiography. 

The clinical case for screening is compelling. The harder question for many healthcare organizations is how to translate those recommendations into consistent action across an eligible patient population. 

The Screening Gap Is Also a Coordination Gap 

Despite the potential benefits of earlier detection, lung cancer screening remains significantly underutilized. According to the CDC, only about 18% of U.S. adults for whom lung cancer screening is recommended have been screened. 

There are many reasons an eligible patient may never make it from a screening recommendation to a completed LDCT. A care team first has to recognize that the patient meets screening criteria, which depends on having accurate information about age and smoking history. The patient may then need education about why screening matters, assistance scheduling an appointment, help addressing transportation or other access barriers, and reminders to complete the scan. 

Completing the screening is not necessarily the end of the process. Depending on the results, patients may need additional imaging, specialist referrals, further evaluation, or continued surveillance. Each step introduces another opportunity for communication to break down or for a patient to become disengaged. 

This is why lung cancer screening is better viewed as a care pathway rather than a single clinical event. Identifying eligible patients is important, but improving earlier detection also depends on helping patients navigate what happens before and after the scan. 

What a More Coordinated Screening Pathway Looks Like 

For healthcare organizations managing large patient populations, improving screening participation requires repeatable processes that connect identification, engagement, and follow-up. Rather than relying on individual encounters to move patients through the process, care teams can create workflows that proactively address common gaps. 

That may include: 

• Identifying high-risk patients and determining screening eligibility 

• Conducting proactive outreach and reinforcing education about LDCT screening 

• Helping patients schedule imaging and addressing transportation or access barriers 

• Following up when recommended screening has not been completed 

• Coordinating additional imaging or pulmonology referrals when needed 

• Supporting smoking cessation and other risk-reduction efforts 

• Monitoring abnormal findings and helping patients remain engaged in follow-up care 

None of these activities is particularly novel in isolation. The difficulty is making sure they happen consistently for every appropriate patient, especially when care is distributed across multiple providers and settings. 

For high-risk populations, that continuity matters. A missed appointment, incomplete referral, or unaddressed transportation barrier can interrupt a process that depends on patients successfully moving from one step to the next. 

Risk Reduction Goes Beyond Screening 

Screening is an important tool for people at high risk, but reducing the burden of lung cancer also means addressing modifiable risk factors wherever possible. 

According to the CDC, cigarette smoking is linked to approximately 80% of lung cancer deaths in the United States. Smoking rates have declined considerably over time, contributing to reductions in lung cancer mortality, but risk does not disappear immediately when someone stops smoking. Former smokers may continue to meet screening criteria for years after quitting. 

Smoking is also not the only factor associated with lung cancer. The CDC identifies radon as another important cause and notes that occupational exposure to substances such as asbestos, arsenic, diesel exhaust, and certain forms of silica and chromium can increase risk. Air pollution and other environmental factors can contribute as well. 

For healthcare organizations, this creates an opportunity to connect screening with broader preventive efforts. Smoking cessation support, risk-factor education, appropriate screening, and ongoing patient engagement can work together rather than operating as isolated interventions. 

Late-Stage Disease Carries a Significant Burden 

The implications of delayed detection extend beyond survival. Lung cancer also creates substantial clinical and economic burden for patients and healthcare organizations. 

The American Lung Association estimates that lung cancer accounts for more than $21 billion in annual direct medical costs. A 2025 study published in Current Oncology found that patients receiving first-line treatment for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer incurred average healthcare costs exceeding $32,000 per patient per month and averaged approximately 80 outpatient visits annually. 

Those figures should not be interpreted to mean that screening alone will eliminate those costs or utilization. They do, however, illustrate the intensity of care that can accompany advanced disease and reinforce the value of identifying appropriate patients earlier and maintaining continuity throughout their care. 

Supporting Patients Across the Lung Cancer Care Journey. 

At CareHarmony, our approach to lung cancer care coordination is designed to support patients across screening, follow-up, and ongoing care while complementing the work of physicians and other members of the clinical team. 

Depending on a patient’s needs, care coordination may include smoking cessation counseling, imaging follow-up, pulmonology referral coordination, education, financial support, symptom and side-effect monitoring, and ongoing efforts to identify and address barriers to care. 

The common thread across these activities is continuity. A patient may need help understanding why an LDCT has been recommended, scheduling the scan, resolving an access barrier, following up on an abnormal result, or connecting with the appropriate specialist. For patients already undergoing treatment, needs can evolve further as symptoms, side effects, financial concerns, and coordination across multiple providers become part of the care journey. 

Care coordination provides a structure for keeping those needs visible between traditional clinical encounters. It does not replace the physician-patient relationship or the expertise of oncology and pulmonary teams; it helps support the work that needs to happen around those relationships. 

From Screening Guidelines to Screening Completion 

Healthcare organizations already have evidence-based recommendations for identifying many of the patients who should receive lung cancer screening. LDCT provides an effective screening method, and the significant difference in survival between localized and distant disease underscores why earlier detection matters. 

The next challenge is operational: building reliable processes to identify eligible patients, engage them before symptoms emerge, remove barriers to screening, coordinate appropriate follow-up, and maintain continuity when additional care is required. 

For healthcare leaders, that may be where one of the greatest opportunities lies. Improving lung cancer screening is not simply about making another recommendation during an office visit. It is about creating a system that helps more patients successfully move from eligibility to screening and, when needed, through the next steps in their care. 

Earlier detection starts with screening. Achieving it at scale requires coordination. 

Sources 

American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2025. 

American Lung Association. State of Lung Cancer Report 2025. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lung Cancer Risk Factors. 

National Cancer Institute. SEER Cancer Stat Facts: Lung and Bronchus Cancer. 

National Lung Screening Trial Research Team. “Reduced Lung-Cancer Mortality with Low-Dose Computed Tomographic Screening.” New England Journal of Medicine. 2011. 

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “Screening for Lung Cancer.” JAMA. 2021. 

Masters E, et al. “Real-World Treatment Patterns, Healthcare Resource Utilization, and Economic Burden Associated with First-Line Treatment of Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the United States.” Current Oncology. 2025.