BREATHING IN A NEW ERA
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LUNG CANCER POLICIES ACROSS EUROPE
...and the patient needs to be rapidly referred to
specialised care
Once diagnosis has been achieved, the patient then must be rapidly referred into secondary and
tertiary care. Delays are likely to worsen outcomes and can be psychologically stressful for patients.
Research shows that delayed diagnosis increases mortality,^52 but that the implementation of specific
timeframes improves survival for lung cancer patients.^53 Providing a simplified fast-track referral
pathway can improve the experience for both the lung cancer patient and primary care physician.^54
However, lung cancer clinical guidelines only mention such a pathway in four of our eleven countries:
the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
Another source of delay are the challenges that newly diagnosed patients may face in obtaining
and coordinating appointments with multiple specialists. A multidisciplinary care system can alleviate
some of these pressures: clinics organised around multidisciplinary care teams improve both time to
diagnosis and initiation of treatment.^55Fresh thinking: opportunities for
improvementFast-tracking is essential and yet is often not
discussed in guidelines. Clear fast-track referral
pathways with timeline targets should be
described. This applies both for diagnostic testing
(when suspicions are first raised) and for referral
to care teams once a positive diagnosis has been
made.Focus on hard-to-reach populations. Rapid
diagnosis becomes a greater challenge for hard to
reach populations, including disadvantaged and
remote populations. Using technology effectively
may improve the delivery of care to remote
patients by allowing specialists to support the
diagnostic efforts of local physicians (see next
section).