Benefits of a Specialist Lung Cancer Nurse
✓ Improved coordination across complex care pathways
✓ Reduced delays to diagnosis and treatment
✓ Support for lung cancer screening implementation
✓ Improved patient outcomes and experience
✓ Reduced avoidable hospital presentations
✓ Helping health services operate more efficiently
The Growing Complexity of Lung Cancer Care
The pathway from suspicion of lung cancer to treatment has become increasingly complex. A patient may require multiple scans, biopsies, pathology reviews, molecular testing, multidisciplinary discussions and specialist appointments before treatment can begin. Increasingly, clinicians must also consider biomarker testing, targeted therapies, immunotherapy and clinical trial opportunities.
At the same time, Australia’s National Lung Cancer Screening Program (NLCSP) is introducing large numbers of people into the healthcare system who require assessment, surveillance and follow-up for pulmonary nodules. As the complexity of care increases, so does the need for coordination.
Without effective coordination, delays occur. Appointments are missed. Investigations are duplicated. Patients become anxious. Clinicians spend increasing amounts of time performing administrative tasks rather than delivering clinical care.
The Hidden Work That Keeps Patients Moving Through the System
When a patient progresses smoothly from a suspicious scan to diagnosis and treatment, it is easy to assume the system simply worked. In reality, someone has often spent hours coordinating referrals, arranging investigations, chasing results, communicating with multiple departments, supporting patients and identifying delays before they become critical. In many services, that person is the Specialist Lung Cancer Nurse (SLCN).
These nurses frequently act as navigators through a fragmented healthcare system. They help coordinate appointments, triage referrals, facilitate communication between clinicians, support multidisciplinary care and ensure patients receive the right care at the right time. As lung cancer pathways become increasingly complex, the value of dedicated cancer care coordination continues to grow. Importantly, much of this work occurs before a diagnosis is even confirmed.
At TOGA’s Lung Cancer Optimal Care Pathway workshop, participants repeatedly highlighted nurse-led coordination as one of the most practical and scalable ways to improve timeliness across the lung cancer pathway.
Many delays occur before specialist referral, between investigations, or while patients navigate multiple healthcare providers. SLCNs help identify and address these barriers before they affect patient outcomes.
“The question for many health services is no longer whether Specialist Lung Cancer Nurses add value. It is whether services can afford not to have them.”
The Evidence Behind the Specialist Lung Cancer Nurse Role
The importance of SLCNs is recognised by both Australian and international guidelines. Australia’s Optimal Care Pathway for people with lung cancer recommends access to specialist nursing support from referral through to survivorship or end-of-life care. Internationally, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends approximately one SLCN for every 80 new lung cancer patients. The evidence supporting these recommendations is substantial.
Research has demonstrated that appropriate specialist nursing support is associated with:
- More timely access to treatment
- Increased uptake of surgery, radiation therapy and systemic treatments
- Improved symptom management
- Better psychological and social support
- Reduced avoidable emergency department presentations
- Reduced hospital admissions
- Improved patient experience
- Improved survival outcomes
- Reduced health system costs
Importantly, the benefits extend beyond individual patients. SLCN can improve service efficiency by helping health systems function more effectively and reducing pressure on overstretched clinical teams.
Meeting the Challenges of Lung Cancer Screening
The National Lung Cancer Screening Program has added a new dimension to the business case for SLCNs. Screening is expected to improve outcomes through earlier detection of lung cancer. However, it also creates significant workforce demands.
As screening expands nationally, lung cancer nurse navigators are becoming increasingly important in coordinating assessment and follow-up for people with pulmonary nodules. These roles help ensure patients move efficiently through diagnostic pathways while reducing delays, duplication and unnecessary anxiety. Large numbers of pulmonary nodules require assessment, surveillance and follow-up. Patients require education, reassurance and coordination through increasingly complex diagnostic pathways.
Many health services are already exploring nurse-led pulmonary nodule clinics and telehealth-based assessment models to help manage this demand. Without sufficient coordination capacity, the benefits of screening risk being undermined by delays elsewhere in the system.
A Proven Model of Care
Examples of innovative nurse-led models are already demonstrating what is possible.
One example is the Lung TRACS telehealth referral clinic at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Led by Lung Cancer Clinical Nurse Consultant Mary Duffy OAM, the service uses specialist nursing coordination to streamline referral pathways and improve access to care.
Patients receive an initial telehealth consultation before subsequent investigations and appointments are coordinated through the service. The model combines clinical expertise with intensive navigation and administrative support.
The lesson is clear: improving lung cancer outcomes is not simply about increasing specialist capacity. It is also about ensuring patients can successfully navigate the system.
Case Study: Lung TRACS
Location: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne
Model: Nurse-led telehealth referral clinic
Benefits:
- Faster access to specialist review
- Improved pathway coordination
- Low failure-to-attend rates
- Better patient navigation
Specialist Cancer Nursing Is Becoming National Health Infrastructure
The growing recognition of specialist cancer nursing is reflected in the recent expansion of the McGrath Foundation’s nationally recognised nursing program beyond breast cancer to support people affected by all cancer types. Lung cancer has been among the early tumour streams included in this expansion, reflecting increasing recognition that dedicated cancer care nurses are essential to coordinating complex care pathways, improving patient experience and supporting equitable access to care. This represents a broader shift in healthcare thinking.
Specialist cancer nurses are increasingly viewed not as optional support services, but as core healthcare infrastructure that improves quality, safety, efficiency and patient outcomes.
Building the Business Case
For hospital executives and health service leaders, the business case for SLCNs is becoming increasingly compelling.
The role supports multiple organisational priorities simultaneously:
- Improved patient experience
- Reduced delays in diagnosis and treatment
- Better compliance with Optimal Care Pathway targets
- Reduced emergency presentations and admissions
- Improved coordination across services
- Support for screening implementation
- More efficient use of specialist clinical resources
- Opportunities for innovative nurse-led models of care
As lung cancer care becomes increasingly complex, the evidence suggests that SLCNs do far more than support patients. They help entire systems function better.
For services seeking to develop a local proposal, the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) has developed a detailed Specialist Lung Cancer Nurse business case template, including workforce rationale, evidence summaries, service models and cost-benefit considerations.
Looking Ahead
Australia is entering a new era of lung cancer care. Screening programs, precision medicine, liquid biopsy and emerging therapies are creating opportunities to improve outcomes for more people than ever before. Realising these benefits will require not only scientific advances, but also the workforce needed to deliver them effectively.
Specialist Lung Cancer Nurses sit at the centre of this challenge. Their work may often be invisible, but its impact is not.
By reducing delays, coordinating care, supporting patients and improving health system performance, SLCNs are helping ensure that advances in lung cancer research translate into better outcomes for the people who need them most. They may not always be the most visible members of the healthcare team, but they remain one of its most important.
