New Delhi: About 2,000 Australians with high risk of lung cancer will undergo regular chest scans to determine if such screenings can help detect the deadly disease in its early stage.


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The clinical trial, being run by the Royal Melbourne Hospital, will provide crucial evidence about the effectiveness of a screening programme for the country's most lethal cancer. Lung cancer claims more than 8,000 lives every year in Australia.


In the trial, people at a high risk of developing lung cancer, predominantly heavy smokers over 55, will undergo regular computer tomography (CT) scans to see if it can detect the disease before it becomes deadly.


"The cure rate is very low because 75 per cent of lung cancers have already spread by the time they are detected," said Lou Irving, associate professor at Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia.


"This is partly because the lungs don't have any pain fibres within them, so the cancer can grow quite large in your lungs and spread before you even know that you have it," Irving was quoted as saying by 'Herald Sun'.


"If you can pick it up when it is the size of a peanut there is then the chance to use surgery, which, in very early disease, has a cure rate of 85 per cent," he added.


It is reported that more than 10,000 Australians are diagnosed with lung cancer annually and fewer than 14 per cent of patients are alive after five years.


(With IANS inputs)