The Health Ministry has decided to cooperate with Israel's health management organizations to launch a pilot program to detect lung cancer in its early stages, members of the national committee charged with determining what medicines and/or treatments the Israeli government will fund were informed Sunday.
In addition to the allocation of 40 million shekels ($11.5 million) to pay for the tests, a national database to record the results will be established.
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The pilot program, which was designed by Professor Siegal Sadetzki, head of public health services in the Health Ministry, the nation's four HMOs (Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet, and Leumit) will identify current and former smokers aged 55-74 who smoke or used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years or two packs a day for 15 years.
Smokers who fit this profile will be sent for a type of CT scan that has been proven to help spot lung cancer in its early stages.
Each year, nearly 2,000 Israeli die of lung cancer. Research shows that early detection can help reduce the fatality rate of lung cancer by 40% among women and 26% among men.
The decision comes after a four-year battle to secure government coverage of the early detection tests, which was spearheaded by the Israeli Lung Foundation.
Founder and director of the ILCF Dr. Shani Shilo welcomed the news of the pilot early detection program and called it "a historic decision that will no doubt reduce the rate of fatality from the most lethal cancer."
