# Targeted lung health check

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/targeted-lung-health-check/  
OnCo record `targeted-lung-health-check` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The NHS appointment that decides whether you are offered a lung scan. People aged 55 to 74 whose GP record shows they smoke or used to are asked about their breathing, health and smoking; a risk score then decides who gets a low-dose CT scan, often in a mobile unit in a car park, every two years.

## Summary

The Targeted Lung Health Check programme began in England in 2019 and has become the national Lung Cancer Screening Programme, with full coverage expected in 2030. Invitations are drawn from GP records: everyone aged 55 to 74 recorded as a current or former smoker is invited to a check by phone, online or in person, covering breathing, lifestyle, family and medical history, with height and weight measured. A risk prediction model then decides who is scanned. England uses PLCOm2012 and the Liverpool Lung Project version 2 (Br J Cancer 2021), with a PLCOm2012 threshold of 1.51 percent risk of lung cancer over six years. Those above threshold are offered a low-dose CT scan, repeated every two years; results follow within four weeks; anyone who still smokes is offered stop-smoking support at the same appointment, which the UK National Screening Committee made a condition of its recommendation. About 70 percent of the first phase's scanning was done in mobile units sited in places such as supermarket car parks, deliberately in the most deprived areas, where people are four times more likely to smoke. The first phase invited about 900,000 people, made 375,000 risk assessments, did 200,000 scans and found more than 2,000 cancers, 76 percent of them early stage against 29 percent outside the programme in 2019. By March 2025 the programme had invited over two million people and diagnosed 7,193 lung cancers, 63.1 percent at stage 1 and 12.6 percent at stage 2 (Nature Medicine 2026). Symptoms are not a reason to wait for a check: the NHS tells anyone with symptoms to see a GP now.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-25
- Also known as: lung health check; lung health checks; NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme; targeted lung health checks; TLHC; lung cancer screening programme (England)
- Tags: lung

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_cancer_screening
- NHS: lung cancer screening (who is invited to a lung health check and what happens): https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/lung-cancer-screening/
- UK National Screening Committee: lung cancer screening recommendation (June 2022 review): https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/lung-cancer/
- GOV.UK: new lung cancer screening roll out to detect cancer sooner (26 June 2023): https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-lung-cancer-screening-roll-out-to-detect-cancer-sooner
- Nature Medicine 2026: implementation of the NHS England Lung Cancer Screening Programme over 5 years (over two million invited, 7,193 cancers to March 2025): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-026-04292-y
- Br J Cancer 2021: comparative performance of lung cancer risk models to define lung screening eligibility in the United Kingdom (273,789 people in three cohorts): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01278-0
- Cancer Epidemiol 2023: the value of blood-based measures of liver function and urate in lung cancer risk prediction (388,199 UK Biobank participants; the 1.51 percent six-year threshold): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2023.102354

## Connected records

- cancers: [Lung cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/lung-cancer/), [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/), [Small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/sclc/)
- technologies: [CT (computed tomography)](https://onco.cc/technologies/ct/), [Low-dose CT lung screening](https://onco.cc/technologies/low-dose-ct-screening/), [NHS Targeted Lung Health Check (lung cancer screening programme)](https://onco.cc/technologies/nhs-targeted-lung-health-check/)
- terms: [Haemoptysis (coughing up blood)](https://onco.cc/terms/haemoptysis/), [Lung cancer in never-smokers](https://onco.cc/terms/never-smoker-lung-cancer/), [Lung-RADS and nodule reporting](https://onco.cc/terms/lung-rads/), [Pack-year](https://onco.cc/terms/pack-year/), [Pulmonary nodule](https://onco.cc/terms/pulmonary-nodule/), [Stopping smoking](https://onco.cc/terms/smoking-cessation/)

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