NHS AI and robot pilot to help detect lung cancer sooner

NHS England has launched an AI and robot pilot to help spot lung cancer sooner, with fewer invasive tests for suspected cancer patients.

The new approach uses AI software to analyse lung scans and flag small lumps that are most likely to be cancerous, and a robotic camera to guide biopsy tools through the airways with greater precision than standard techniques.

From this month, the pilot will run at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust for 18 months, with a full rollout expected in April 2026, before a planned expansion to King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

If successful, the pilot will help the NHS generate evidence to develop a national commissioning policy for robotic bronchoscopy, supporting more consistent access to the technology across the NHS in future.

Dr Anne Rigg, medical director for cancer and surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’ said: “This pilot brings together AI and robotic technology as genuinely disruptive tools to simplify and shorten the lung cancer diagnostic pathway.

“By combining AI-enabled risk stratification with highly precise robotic biopsy, we are reducing delays and unnecessary steps to diagnosis.

“Crucially, this work is being co-designed with patients and frontline clinical teams, ensuring that the pathway is not only faster, but safer, more equitable, and centred on the patient experience.

“By improving access to advanced diagnostics we can help reduce variation in care for all patients, regardless of where they are referred from.”

The robot, with the help of AI, can travel deep inside the lungs to reach tiny, hard-to-access nodules that are as small as 6mm – around the size of a grain of rice – hidden deep in the lung and often too risky or difficult to access using existing methods.

Once AI has highlighted high-risk areas, doctors can take a precise tissue sample, which is sent to specialist laboratories and reviewed by expert cancer teams to confirm or rule out cancer.

For many patients, weeks of repeat scans and procedures could be replaced with a single, 30-minute cancer biopsy, reducing prolonged uncertainty and avoiding more invasive surgery.

If shown to be effective, the technology could help transform lung cancer diagnosis as the NHS screening programme increasingly identifies more people with very small nodules that would previously have gone undetected until much later.

Wes Streeting, health secretary, said: “When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, the NHS saved my life using robotic technology. That experience showed me what’s possible when brilliant clinicians have access to cutting-edge innovation – it saves lives.

“Lung cancer is one of the biggest killers in the UK, taking an extra year of people’s lives in the poorest parts of the country.

“This pilot will help to catch it earlier, replacing weeks of invasive testing with a single targeted procedure. For patients waiting anxiously for answers, this speed and precision can be life-changing.”

The government announced yesterday that it is investing in technology and AI to spot cancers earlier as part of the National Cancer Plan.