Early Detection and Misconceptions in Lung Cancer

Early detection of lung cancer is challenging because symptoms often do not appear until the disease has progressed, and when they do, they may be mistaken for less serious conditions, emphasized Brittney Nichols, registered nurse, as well as senior science and research specialist at GO2 for Lung Cancer.

Nichols, who sat down for an interview with CURE at the 2025 IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer, went on to emphasize the importance of understanding that lung cancer is not solely caused by smoking, that anyone can develop it, and no one is to blame for their diagnosis. She also shared how the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer provides support during throughout a lung cancer diagnosis.

CURE: Can you share an overview of the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer and the ways it supports patients and families navigating a diagnosis?

Nichols: The GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer is a not-for-profit patient advocacy organization, and we're really focused on empowering people, both who are living with lung cancer, at risk for lung cancer, or supporting someone with lung cancer, but really empowering them at every step along the way. We try to do this by tackling it on a variety of fronts.

The heart of GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer Services team, and their focus is staying abreast of what's going on in the lung cancer patient community to make sure that we're offering resources and information that are going to be most pertinent to them and address their changing needs. But we have a few other departments, too. For example, we have a policy team, and they try to stay informed about what's going on, both on a state and national policy level, sometimes as it relates to screening, coverage or access issues, to make sure that we're advocating for people to access the care that they need. We have an Excellence in Healthcare Delivery team, and their focus is on the provider, thinking about our nurses and our physicians because we know that it's not only important for the patients to be informed, but we want our healthcare providers to have access to the resources and information that they need as well.

And one other team I want to highlight is my home base, which is the Science and Research team, and our main focus on that team is helping to ensure that clinical trials and new technologies and treatments make their way into the community. A lot of times, these resources are easier to access at academic medical centers, but we know that 20% of people get their care at those while the other 80% are usually seen in the community. We want to meet people where they're at and ensure that everyone has access to the highest quality care.

Many patients want to know what the early signs and symptoms of lung cancer are. What do you think is most important for people to understand about detection and risk?

That is so tricky because, unfortunately, with lung cancer, it often doesn't show signs or symptoms until it's progressed. And when it does, those can be easy to misattribute because it could be something simple, like a cough or back pain that could have a wide variety of causes.

What I think is important for people to know is that we have an approved and validated screening test for lung cancer. It's for people who are older than age 50 and have a significant history of tobacco smoking. It's a short test called a low-dose CT scan, and it takes about 15 minutes. They'll go in and do that short scan to see if there are any abnormalities noted on the person's lungs, and from there, they can determine: Is further action needed? Are there things we need to monitor? Or are you good? And maybe we'll see you back in another year to check up on you.

I always tell people, if you think that you might qualify, you can always reach out to GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, but you can also check with your primary care provider, and they can talk a little bit about if you would qualify, and if so, where you would want to go to get that scan.

For those who may not be familiar, what is one of the biggest misconceptions on lung cancer that you believe need to be addressed?

There are a couple of major ones. The one I really want to focus on is the belief that if a person has lung cancer, it's because they smoked, and that makes it their fault, and that is very wrong. For starters, cancer is no one's fault. Cancer is, unfortunately, just something that happens. To really emphasize it, anyone with lungs can get lung cancer. I know that's a saying that goes around a lot in the lung cancer community, but it's so true.

In fact, one out of every five lung cancers occur in someone with no history of smoking. It can come from environmental exposures. Sometimes it can come from genetic changes. But again, the big take-home point there is that even if you did smoke, you don't deserve lung cancer. It's no one's fault. Again, sometimes it has nothing to do with tobacco usage. I'd say that's my first big take-home point there.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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