{"entity":{"id":"screening-hr-lung","kind":"term","name":"Lung cancer screening programme in Croatia","aka":["Croatian National Lung Cancer Screening Program","Croatia: national lung cancer screening programme"],"tldr":"Croatia runs a national, fully reimbursed lung cancer screening programme with low-dose CT, in which family doctors refer people at high risk; more than 50,000 people were screened from October 2020 to August 2025.","summary":"Croatia's Ministry of Health set up a Lung Cancer Screening Working Group to design a national programme, described by its authors as the first national lung cancer screening programme in the European Union. It uses low-dose CT, modified International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) criteria for nodule management, volumetric analysis assessed by artificial intelligence, full digitalisation and smoking cessation, and is fully reimbursed; general practitioners identify and refer people at high risk. From October 2020 to August 2025 more than 50,000 participants were screened with more than 70,000 scans; 54% were men, the average age was 62, and 4.5% had positive results needing follow-up (Samaržija et al., European Radiology 2026). A cross-country review of ten European countries published the same year named Croatia, Poland and England as the only three with a formal lung cancer screening programme (Poon et al., Frontiers in Public Health 2026).","asOf":"2026-11-04","links":[{"label":"Samaržija et al., European Radiology 2026 (the Croatian model)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-025-12185-w"},{"label":"Poon et al., Frontiers in Public Health 2026 (lung screening in Europe)","url":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1766560"}],"tags":["screening-programme"],"related":["national-screening-programmes"],"cancers":["lung-cancer"],"sections":["early-detection"],"technologies":["low-dose-ct-screening"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["screening"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Epidemiology & prevention"},"route":"/terms/screening-hr-lung/","neighbours":{"term":[{"id":"national-screening-programmes","kind":"term","name":"National cancer screening programmes","route":"/terms/national-screening-programmes/"},{"id":"screening","kind":"term","name":"Screening","route":"/terms/screening/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"lung-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Lung cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/lung-cancer/"}],"section":[{"id":"early-detection","kind":"section","name":"Early Detection & Screening","route":"/fronts/early-detection/"}],"technology":[{"id":"low-dose-ct-screening","kind":"technology","name":"Low-dose CT lung screening","route":"/technologies/low-dose-ct-screening/"}]}}