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Residents of North and East London invited to have lung health checks as part of the Summit Study

Residents of North and East London invited to have lung health checks as part of the Summit Study

As residents across north and east London are invited to have lung health checks, UCL Hospitals Charitable Foundation is honoured to be working closely with Professor Sam Janes and the Lungs for Living team, fundraising in support of the exciting and pioneering Summit Study. The Summit Study is being delivered by UCLH in close collaboration with UCL and GRAIL, Inc. (a US healthcare company focused on the early detection of cancer).

The Summit Study’s aims are to detect lung cancer early, and to develop a new blood test for the early detection of multiple cancer types, including lung cancer. Working with 50,000 people across London who have been identified as having the highest risk of lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease, the Summit Study is one of the largest trials of its kind in the world.

The Summit Study is seeking to put early screening for lung cancer on the national agenda. Taking place over a five year period, from 2019 – 2024, participants in the study will receive lung health checks and screening along with regular blood sample checks. Screening for bowel, cervical and breast cancer are routine in England currently, but screening for lung cancer is not. It is hoped that the data collected from these activities will inform and prove beyond doubt that early screening for lung cancer is the way forward. Currently and all too frequently, lung cancer diagnosis happens too late.

The Summit Study has recently launched a bus advertising campaign to raise local residents' awareness about an invitation letter to have a lung health check. So far more than 7,000 people have been involved in the study after receiving an invitation from their GP. Almost 350 GP practices are now working with the Summit Study to identify suitable patients, who are people aged between 50 and 77 years with a smoking history.

Professor Sam Janes, professor of respiratory medicine at UCL/UCLH and Chief Investigator of the Summit Study (pictured above right) said 'November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month so it's an ideal time for us to start the advertising campaign. SUMMIT is really gathering pace but we are aiming for 25,000 people with a smoking history to take part in the study.' The campaign is running through Nocvember and then again in January and February 2020.

UCL Hospitals Charitable Foundation is proud to be involved with the Summit Study, and has been asked to fundraise £5 million to pay for the design and production of a Lung and Heart Bioresource that is essential to it. The UCLH Lung and Heart Bioresource will be the critical ‘by-product’ of the Summit Study, providing a unique database for future research into the world’s three most fatal diseases and enabling a unique study of those individuals at highest risk of developing them. The funding will also help to cover the costs of running and operating the bespoke Bioresource, which needs to be incredibly powerful in order to store the vast amount of biological information that will be gathered from the 50,000 participants over the five years of the study.

UCL Hospitals Charitable Foundation is honoured to be involved in supporting the Summit Study and to be a part of this ground-breaking research, improving early detection rates of lethal diseases, and creating hope for the future.