Lung cancer symptoms and screening: How community pharmacy can save lives
Community pharmacies across North Central London play a vital role in supporting early cancer detection and encouraging timely help-seeking. Earlier this year community pharmacies got involved in our abdominal cancer awareness campaign. This led to 1,061 targeted conversations and 261 GP referrals. Following this success, the North Central London Cancer Alliance has launched a new campaign – “Healthy Lungs, Healthier You” – with community pharmacies focused on lung cancer symptoms and screening.
To help prepare for the campaign, we held a one-off educational webinar on 4 December at 8pm. The session was open to all community pharmacies across NCL, whether or not they were participating in the lung campaign itself. The content is designed to provide valuable learning in its own right, supporting your continuing professional development (CPD) and everyday practice. The video is available to watch below.
This 30 minute recorded webinar is designed for community pharmacy teams in North Central London and focuses on the important role pharmacies can play in supporting earlier detection of lung cancer.
The session covers:
- The most common symptoms of lung cancer and when patients should be encouraged to speak to their GP
- An overview of the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme, including eligibility and the screening pathway
- Practical guidance on having brief, symptom-led conversations in the pharmacy setting
- How pharmacies can help reassure patients, address common concerns, and support timely referral to primary care
The webinar was delivered by a multidisciplinary panel including a lung cancer consultant, a GP and a community pharmacist, and is intended as a practical learning resource that can be watched in full or revisited in sections.
Continuing Professional Development
This webinar has been designed to support planned CPD learning under the General Pharmaceutical Council framework. Pharmacy professionals can record the learning as part of their annual revalidation, reflecting on how it applies to conversations with patients in practice.