How Can Lung Cancer Screening in India Reflect Risk Beyond Smoking?

How Can Lung Cancer Screening in India Reflect Risk Beyond Smoking? Thu, 09/17/2026 - 06:59 Subheader Opinion: Current lung cancer screening policy leaves gaps around air pollution, exposure, and genetics. Two new trials in India are creating the localized evidence needed to build a screening policy tailored to a true at-risk profile. Body By Catharine Grimes , Abhishek Shankar //05 August 2026 Originally published on Devex Consider a patient: a woman in her forties who lives in Delhi and has never smoked. Neither has anyone in her family. She is aware that India's cities carry high levels of air pollution. She has also read that low-dose computed tomography, or LDCT, scanning can detect lung cancer early, when treatment is most effective. She goes to a clinic and asks whether she should be screened. The honest answer to her question today would be: We don't know . It is not because the science of lung cancer screening is immature. Two landmark trials, the U.S. National Lung Screening Trial and the Dutch-Belgian NELSON study , established lung cancer screening guidelines for people with a past or current history of smoking in high-income settings. Low-dose CT screening is now estab