Austria: Lung Cancer Country Profile
Austria performs moderately well across all five domains, scoring ‘high’ in the R&D domain, ‘moderately high’ in the public health
and treatment domains, and ‘moderate’ in the strategic and rapid referral domains. The merely moderate performance in the first
domain results from the need for a lung cancer specific control plan, an updated National Cancer Control Plan which includes
an implementation schedule and a funding source, and a discussion of screening in the guidelines. Scores in the third domain,
on referral, would improve if the guidelines included discussion of multidisciplinary care teams and a rapid referral pathway
to secondary and tertiary care. Including a referral pathway to supportive and palliative care in the guidelines would improve
performance in the fourth domain along with reimbursement of biomarker testing. We discuss opportunities for improvement at
the end of this country profile.
The costs to Austrian society from tobacco have not been fully addressed and achieving national smoke-free legislation has been
a challenge. However, in July 2019, the government passed a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars which is to go into effect on 1
November 2019. Workshop participants noted the challenge of identifying the point at which clinicians begin to suspect a patient
of possibly having lung cancer. Identifying patients as early as possible is key to improving outcomes. In terms of lung cancer
clinical guidelines, there are two sets used: (1) the Austrian Cancer Aid and Austrian Society of Pulmonology lung cancer guidelines
and (2) the German Society of Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine guidelines.
Summary scorecard
Domain Austria Belgium Finland France Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Spain Sweden UKLung cancer
is a strategic
priorityM
Lung cancer
is a public
health issueMH
Lung cancer
is a race
against timeM
Lung cancer
is at a
crossroadsMH
Lung cancer
is a focus for
researchH
KeyLow Moderately low Moderate Moderately high HighSponsored by