If you want to prevent lung cancer deaths, there's an important first step.

Catch the disease early. Scientists at Johnson & Johnson are developing tools

to improve lung cancer detection with the hope of doing just that.

And that's where Mark Lloyd Davies' work comes in. He's the global head of strategic initiatives

at Johnson & Johnson, working directly with the lung cancer initiative.

And he's devoted to changing public policy so people who are most likely to develop lung cancer

can access the regular screenings they need. Mark recently sat down with

Scientific American Custom Media to talk about ways to reach those vulnerable populations

earlier. We know lung cancer is often lethal because it's detected too late,

so you'd think there would be a big push to offer regular screenings, especially to smokers.

Unfortunately, that's not the case. There are few or no policy mechanisms which incentivize

health systems to catch lung cancer at an early stage. Mark says that each year only about

five to seven percent of people who qualify receive a lung cancer screening.

And that's a complete contrast, for example, for other cancers such as cervical cancer,

where you have 80% of patients having an annual cervical cancer check.

Why are lung cancer screening so low if we know they'd save lives?

I've been in many summits meetings, discussions of leading clinicians,

pornologists, oncologists, policy makers, patient group advocates.

And there isn't necessarily a one single well-known answer as to why that is the case.

But Mark has a few ideas. Number one, the stigma associated with smoking.

There's almost a sort of sense of, since a shame amongst people who are at risk of developing

lung cancer, such as smokers. As a result of that, there isn't that sort of proactive drive to

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