National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) – State of the nation report 2023

The National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) has published a State of the Nation Report 2023. Based on patients diagnosed with lung cancer in England during 2021, and in Wales in 2020-2021, it summarises the performance of lung cancer services on a set of performance indicators and patient outcomes.

The report found that the number of patients diagnosed in England in 2021 has recovered to pre- pandemic levels, with 34,478 patients diagnosed with lung cancer (compared to 31,371 in 2020 and 33,091 in 2019). It also found that the Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on the number of patients diagnosed in Wales, which fell from 2,240 in 2019 to 2,067 in 2020 (with a subsequent recovery in 2021 to 2,244).

Other key findings for England include:

• The proportion of patients with stage I/II PS 0–2 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) undergoing curative-intent treatment in England has increased from 73% in 2020 to 79% in 2021, and
• The proportion of patients with NSCLC stage IIIB-IV and PS 0-1 receiving systemic anti-cancer therapy in England has increased from 55% in 2020 to 61% in 2021.

For Wales, there was a reduction in the number of patients with NSCLC undergoing surgery or treatment with curative-intent, compared with 2019 – and, by 2021, the number of patients undergoing these treatments had not recovered to 2019 pre- pandemic levels.

This report originally published on 12/04/2023. A post-publication corrected version 3 has been issued. The infographic on page 5 has been updated to correct minor errors. For information on version 2 corrections, please see the attached narrative and change log which outlines those revisions based on feedback received by the NLCA team.

Read the full report: You can read the report by clicking on the link below.

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