Thousands of people across east London are being offered a free lung health MOT as part of the UK’s largest ever lung cancer screening study.

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) and UCL are conducting a Summit study which aims to detect lung cancer early amongst at-risk Londoners when the chance of successful treatment and survival is greater.

Every year around 180 people in Havering are diagnosed with lung cancer and 131 die from the condition.

Barking and Dagenham sees an average of 114 diagnoses of lung cancer each year, which Newham sees an average of 101 diagnoses.

In Redbridge around 117 people are diagnosed with lung cancer and 91 die from the condition.

Dr Maurice Sanomi and Dr Bunmi Olajide, GPs based at Rush Green Medical Centre, in Havering, said: "This is an important study and I'd urge people in Havering to book their lung health MOT if invited by their GP.

"It's easy and free - and could identify any problems early enough to make treatment more likely to be effective."

The study will recruit two groups from north and east London: 25,000 people at high risk of lung and other cancers (group A) and 25,000 people who are not at high risk (group B).

Up to 100,000 people aged 50-77 who meet the eligibility criteria based on their smoking history will be offered a lung health MOT.

Following this check, if eligible, people will be offered the opportunity to take part in Group A of the study.

Those who join will be screened using a low dose CT scan and will provide a blood sample and complete a questionnaire.

The blood sample will be analysed by Grail - a US based healthcare company - as part of its work to evaluate whether cancer can be detected early through genomic signals in the blood.

Professor Sam Janes, chief investigator of the SUMMIT Study, added: "This large-scale study gives us a unique opportunity to detect lung cancer earlier when treatment is more likely to be successful amongst those proven to be most at risk - people who smoke or used to smoke, aged between 50 and 77."

The study will be recruiting throughout this year. People who are eligible will receive invitations from their GP, if their GP practice is participating in the study.