Lung cancer service : University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Mar 21, 2024

The lung cancer service at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) cares for people who have lung cancer, thymoma, mesothelioma and tracheal cancers. We get referrals from both the local area and across the UK.

We are Cancer Research UK’s Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, together with clinical and academic organisations in London and Manchester. This is in recognition of our outstanding lung cancer service, expertise, and lung cancer research. We also have outstanding results in the National Lung Cancer Audit.

At UCLH we also offer the NHS Targeted Lung Health Check Programme. This is a pilot programme in north central London. People aged 55 to 74 years old, who currently or used to smoke, are invited to take part in the programme. If you’re invited to take part, first you’ll have a discussion with a health professional. After that, and if needed, you’ll have a CT scan of your lungs.

A Targeted Lung Health Check can identify signs of cancer at an early stage, when it is more treatable. ​Find out more about the programme in north central London.

Oncology: [email protected]

Telephone: 020 3447 9091

Thoracic MedicineUniversity College Hospital3rd Floor Central250 Euston RoadLondon, NW1 2PG

Relevant NHS e-Referral Service (formerly Choose and Book referrals) Terms:

Target Referrals Cancer Waiting Times Cancer Services, 2nd floor North 250 Euston Road London NW1 2PG

We have a range of services to treat lung cancer and other cancers in the chest:

Surgery for lung cancer, and other cancers in the chest, are done at University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street. At the hospital, leading cardiothoracic surgeons (who specialise in surgery to the chest) deliver dedicated, specialist care.

At UCLH, we have a bronchoscopy suite with state-of-the-art equipment and technology used to deliver minimally invasive endoscopic techniques to diagnose and treat lung cancer.

We routinely perform advanced diagnostic techniques such as endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS), navigational and image-guided bronchoscopy – more than 90% of these are performed on an outpatient basis. We also run a pre-cancer surveillance programme for patients with suspicious changes in their airways using autofluorescence bronchoscopy – this uses autofluorescence light to detect premalignant lesions not usually seen with standard bronchoscopy.

We offer therapeutic endoscopic treatments to treat early tumours in the airway and patients presenting with an obstructed or narrowed airway, usually as a result of tumour blocking the tracheobronchial tree.

Interventional bronchoscopy treatments include:

We use clinical expertise and academic research to deliver cutting-edge lung cancer radiotherapy treatment.

We use advanced radiotherapy technology to plan lung cancer treatment. These include:

We use a range of radiotherapy techniques to treat lung cancer accurately:

Our highly skilled, multidisciplinary radiotherapy team offers personalised, patient-centred care and support in a friendly environment.

People are supported during their course of radiotherapy by a specialist radiographer and an experienced clinical nurse specialist team.

Systemic anti-cancer treatments (SACT) includes chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapies. The UCLH lung cancer team are experts at treating lung cancers using SACTs, and developing new SACTs.

SACTs are generally given at outpatient appointments at the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre.

During SACT planning, we do extensive molecular testing and next-generation sequencing (analysis of your DNA) of your cancer or blood. These help us to plan treatment that’s personalised to you.

We also offer new treatments through research trials. Our medical team includes national leaders of lung cancer research trials.

UCLH heads several national trials in genomics of lung cancer (Professor Charles Swanton), chemotherapeutics (Professor Siow Ming Lee and Dr Martin Forster), and early diagnosis and rapid diagnosis and staging of lung cancers (Professor Sam Janes, Dr Neal Navani & Dr Jeremy George).

Early detection and pre-invasive disease: UCLH has embarked on the largest lung cancer screening project in the UK (SUMMIT study). Patients with significant smoking histories are contacted through their GP surgery and offered a free lung health check and with consent will be offered a low dose CT scan, which has been demonstrated to be highly effective identifying early lung cancer. We also have one of the UK’s most comprehensive longitudinal surveillance programme for patients with premalignant changes in their airway.

Lung cancer genomics: Professor Charles Swanton leads research into lung cancer evolution and heterogeneity in order to understand how lung cancers develop, their response to treatment and mechanisms for drug resistance and treatment failure. TRAcking Cancer Evolution through therapy (TRACERx) is a landmark research project that is uncovering the mechanisms of cancer evolution with the hope that it will ultimately improve precision cancer medicine for patients with lung cancer.

Lung cancer clinical trials: UCLH has been world leading in conducting seminal clinical trials in lung cancer. As part of UCL, we have one the largest clinical trials units in the UK, conducting both early phase studies for novel treatments and large clinical trials in lung cancer.

If you are interested in taking part in our research, please talk to your medical consultant about this at your next appointment. They will know about the research studies happening at UCLH that you might be able to participate in.

Click to search the current clinical trials at UCLH.

We understand the impact cancer can have on you and your family friends and carers. At the UCLH Macmillan Support and Information Service, we have a range of services to support you.

Enhanced supportive care is a specialist outpatient service for people with advanced lung cancer ​who have their care at University College London Hospitals. The Enhanced Supportive Care team provides holistic care to people who have complex physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs.

The team offers tailored advice and support to help people to manage their symptoms at home. They work closely with other hospital and community teams such as physiotherapy, psychological support, complementary therapies and specialist pain services.

There’s more information about this service on the Enhanced Supportive Care web page.

Professor Siow Ming Lee

Dr Crispin Hiley

Dr Magali Taylor

Dr Mariam Jamal-Hanjani

Professor Sam Janes

Dr Jeremy George

Dr Neal Navani

Dr James Wilson

Dr Martin Forster

Dr David Lawrence

Dr Sarah Benafif

Dr Dionysis Papadatos-Pastos

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