SOLACE: Improving lung cancer screening in Europe

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in EU countries, for both men and women. One year ago,HaDEA interviewed the co-scientific coordinators of the EU4Health project SOLACE to know more about the project’s efforts to expand and improve the screening of lung cancer in Europe. Screening high-risks individuals allows to detect lung cancer much earlier than the manifestation of symptoms, improving outcomes and reducing the burden on healthcare systems.

Since then, the project has concluded its activities and achieved major results:

• Comprehensive and standardised assessment of lung cancer screening (LCS) across all EU and EEA countries, which revealed a very diverse implementation landscape. SOLACE developed a systematic mapping of national policies, guidelines, infrastructure, workforce capacities and quality assurance frameworks, identifying major structural barriers in governance, funding, infrastructure and data availability.
• Organisation of three LCS pilots across 17 sites in 11 countries, focusing on underrepresented groups (women, hard-to-reach individuals and higher-risk populations). This included the development and optimisation of recruitment strategies such as the involvement of ambassadors and mediators, the deployment of mobile screening units, the implementation of a common data model across all sites and the recruitment of more than 30,000 individuals.
• Establishment of theSOLACE Knowledge Hub, a digital platform with resources targeting both healthcare professionals and the general public. The Hub includes a range of evidence-based resources such as the Guideline, Quality Assurance and Implementation Package (GIP) and the European framework for LCS training curriculum developed by SOLACE and gives access to the SOLACE projectwebpage.
• Comprehensive analysis of at-risk populations for LCS to support risk-based screening strategies. This provided consolidated evidence on benefits and harms as well as on cost-effectiveness of LCS programmes.
• Evaluation of emerging approaches, including applications of artificial intelligence and their potential to improve screening performance and scalability.
• Establishment of the European Lung Cancer Screening Alliance (ELCSA) to ensure sustainability of the effort carried out during SOLACE beyond the duration of the project.

With its achievements, SOLACE supports the implementation of more equitable and effective lung cancer screening across Europe.SOLACE also took part in thewebinar on cancerinequalities organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (SANTE) and HaDEA in May 2026.

Related links

SOLACEis funded under EU4Health.

Together with the EU4Health projects PRAISE-U and TOGAS, respectively focusing on prostate and gastric cancer screening, in February 2026 SOLACE organised a successful European Cancer Screening and Early Detection Policy Summit. The key findings from the three projects were discussed with policymakers, clinicians, patient advocates and researchers: Key moments from the European Cancer Screening and Early Detection Policy Summit – SOLACE

Background

EU4Healthis the fourth and largest of the EU health programmes. The EU4Health programme goes beyond an ambitious response to the COVID-19 crisis to address the resilience of European healthcare systems. The programme provides funding to national authorities, health organisations and other bodies through grants and public procurement, contributing to a healthier Europe. HaDEA manages the vast majority of the total EU4Health budget and implements the programme by managing calls for proposals and calls for tenders.