Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death, with approximately 70% of cases being diagnosed late, when a cure is hardest to achieve. While evidence for screening implementation already exist, expertise in turning them into funded policies is lacking.

During the 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), panelists will share practical insights on driving change in the workshop From Evidence to Action: Practical Skills for Engaging Policymakers on Earlier Lung Cancer Detection. The session will offer advice for communicating with policymakers, building strategic alliances, addressing implementation challenges, and turning evidence on lung cancer screening and early detection into accessible, sustainable public health action.

The discussion will take place from 8:00 to 10:00 KST on Saturday, September 12, in Room 101, Grand Ballroom, 1F.

From Evidence to Action: Practical Skills for Engaging Policymakers on Earlier Lung Cancer Detection

Saturday, September 12, 2026, at 08:00 KST • Room 101, Grand Ballroom, 1F

Learn practical, transferable skills to engage policymakers on earlier lung cancer detection, strengthening collaboration across clinical, research, and advocacy communities and supporting evidence-informed policy action globally. LEARN MORE

Inside the Policymaking Process: Barriers, Enablers, and Windows of Opportunity

As part of the session, Ricardo Sales dos Santos, MD, PhD, a thoracic surgeon and founder of the ProPulmão Institute in Brazil, will draw on his experience to show how locally generated evidence can support policy change. The ProPulmão Institute built a mobile unit for lung cancer screening in resource-limited areas in the northeast of Brazil and was an integral part of the Brazilian Early Lung Cancer Screening Trial (BRELT) studies, which were designed to address barriers to screening, including geographic inequalities, limited access to low-dose CT scanning, difficulties identifying eligible individuals, and fragmented pathways for biopsy and treatment.1,2,3

Dr. Sales dos Santos said BRELT1 demonstrated that screening was feasible despite the concern for the high prevalence of granulomatous disease in Brazil, and BRELT2 expanded the evidence for detecting lung cancer at early stages.1,2 BRELT3 went on to evaluate more than 2,000 participants using a mobile unit in four cities in resource-limited areas.

Dr. Sales dos Santos said the real-world implementation evidence from BRELT3 corroborated the earlier BRELT findings while showing that screening could be taken closer to socially vulnerable and geographically underserved populations.3

However, evidence alone does not change policy. Dr. Santos said it must be translated into clear messages, locally relevant data, feasible implementation models, and coordinated advocacy. Successful policy engagement requires trusted partnerships, community participation, an understanding of the decision-making environment, and readiness to act when a window of opportunity emerges.

“The ProPulmão experience demonstrates this progression in practice,” he said. “Evidence generated through the BRELT studies helped move the national debate beyond whether lung cancer screening was feasible in Brazil and towards how it should be implemented. This work contributed to the development of Brazil’s first joint national lung cancer screening recommendations by the country’s thoracic surgery, pulmonology, and radiology societies.”

From Data to Decisions: What Policymakers Need to Hear

Gilberto de Lima Lopes Jr., MD, MBA, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Chief of the Division of Medical Oncology, and Associate Director and Medical Director for International Programs at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, will discuss a practical method for turning evidence into a decision a policymaker can actually make. He will outline how the IASLC Global Policy and Partnerships Committee built its 2025 report, Transforming Lung Cancer Care, and how clinicians can use the accompanying toolkit to engage policymakers on earlier detection.

“Evidence, on its own, does not move policymakers: A method does,” Dr. Lopes said. “We are trained to add nuance, and policymaking rewards subtraction. The most useful thing a clinician can do is stop leading with the data and start leading with a precedent and one specific ask. Before your next meeting with a policymaker, delete every sentence that begins with ‘the data show,’ and replace it with ‘here is who has already done this, and here is the one thing I am asking you to do.’ That is the difference between evidence and action.”

Additionally, Dr. Lopes said earlier detection only helps if the patient can then be treated. Thus, finding a cancer sooner is a broken promise if the treatment is unavailable or unaffordable. Through the Access to Oncology Medicines Coalition, which he chairs, this issue is being addressed for patients with more advanced-stage cancer, with more than one million doses of quality-assured cancer medicines having been distributed across 46 countries.

Please refer to the 2026 WCLC Scientific Program for the most up-to-date schedule information.

References

• 1. dos Santos RS, Franceschini JP, Chate RC, et al. Do Current Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines Apply for Populations With High Prevalence of Granulomatous Disease? Results From the First Brazilian Lung Cancer Screening Trial (BRELT1). Ann Thorac Surg. 2016;101(2):481-488. doi:10.1016/j.athoracsur.2015.07.013
• 2. Hochhegger B, Camargo S, da Silva Teles GB, et al. Challenges of Implementing Lung Cancer Screening in a Developing Country: Results of the Second Brazilian Early Lung Cancer Screening Trial (BRELT2). JCO Glob Oncol. 2022;8:e2100257. doi:10.1200/GO.21.00257
• 3. Santos RSD, Figueiredo RG, Franceschini JP, et al. Lung cancer screening in limited resource regions: the 3rd Brazilian Early Lung Cancer Trial (BRELT3/mobile ProPulmão). Lung Cancer Manag. 2025;14(1):2513179. doi:10.1080/17581966.2025.2513179