Low Lung Cancer Screening Rates Limit Treatment Options, Survival: Raymond Osarogiagbon, MD

In part 2 of an interview conducted at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025, Raymond Osarogiagbon, MD, director of the multidisciplinary thoracic oncology program at Baptist Cancer Center, discusses how persistently low lung cancer screening rates in the US impact treatment options and survival outcomes.

He also highlights the potential benefits of increasing screening rates for patients diagnosed with lung cancer and the broader US health care system.

Watch part 1 to learn more about US lung cancer screening guidelines and barriers to effective implementation.

This transcript has been lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

What impact do the limited screening rates have on treatment options and survival outcomes for patients diagnosed with lung cancer?

The low screening rates have a huge impact on patient outcomes. We know that lung cancer is the number 1 cancer killer in America and worldwide, but certainly here in the United States, more than numbers 2, 3, and 4 combined.

Lung cancer screening reduces not just lung cancer mortality, but the impact of it is so big, it actually reduces all-cause mortality. Rescuing people from advanced lung cancer turns out to be so powerful that it reduces the proportions of people who die, period, not just of lung cancer, but all causes.

You can imagine that failing to provide access to such a lifesaving diagnostic test, screening test, has profound impact on us. For example, most people diagnosed with lung cancer conventionally will be diagnosed at stage IV, which is the most advanced stage, where the cancer is no longer curable, in most cases. That's about 40 to 50% of all patients. Only 15% are diagnosed conventionally at stages I or II, when the cancer is most readily curable.

Now, with screening, you flip that upside down. So, 70% of patients diagnosed through screening are diagnosed at stage I. Only about 10% to 15% are at stage IV. You can imagine the 5-year survival of people diagnosed with stage I lung cancer is in excess of 70%. The 5-year survival of people diagnosed at stage IV is about 6%.

Moving the bulk of lung cancer patients from stage IV, where it currently resides, to stage I, which is what screening would do for us, would save just thousands, and over time, millions of lives.