The LUCIA project aims to develop prediction models for early diagnosis of lung cancer (LC) based on the identification of risk factors and a deeper cellular understanding, by the register of real-world data. These models will allow the implementation of new clinical pathways and diagnosis workflow to ensure early diagnosis and confirmation, including subtypes of LC classification.
As an essential part of the early detection in LC, cellular changes by smoking-related transformation modifiers and other secondary risk factors (health-related data, omics, lifestyle, environmental drivers, etc.) will be investigated and modelled. Special attention will be given towards the Never Smokers & Reduced Smokers population (NSRS), which represents 10-15% of all LC cases. However, this population is not screened and currently, we have no way of identifying this population prior to the LC diagnosis.
In a first phase, the LUCIA project is developing a Large-scale Screening cohort for a wide population, including people without a high risk of LC. At this time in the project life, the four clinical sites are finalizing the recruitment process and obtaining the first visit of the clinical study. More than 2,000 visits have been made. In this inclusion, 36.8% are NSRS and around 55% are women. These are populations that have been less studied in estimating the risk of suffering from LC and one of the targets of the LUCIA project.
One of the key objectives of secondary prevention through screening programmes is the early detection of cancers. In the LUCIA project, three participants have been diagnosed with stage IA lung cancer to date, which is undoubtedly one of the main goals of the project. The three participants were ex-smokers. In addition, participants have been identified with lung nodules with different classifications: 17 patients with LungRads 3, 160 with LungRads 2 and 49 with LungRads 1.
In order to establish prevention and health promotion measures, it is essential to identify citizens with different levels of risk. In the general population, volunteers are being classified as high or low risk and 13.6% of the recruited population is at high risk. It should be remembered that this population is between 40 and 80 years old, of which there is a high percentage of women and NSRS.
