Anyone who has smoked could be offered a lung check from middle age to catch cancers earlier.
Ministers are reportedly considering the plan to catch tumours early and improve survival rates that lag behind much of Europe.
It would involve the mass rollout of CT scans in mobile units and trucks in supermarket car parks.
Results from pilot schemes have found such checks were able to spot three quarters of cases of lung cancer at stage one or two.
Normally most cases are found later when survival chances are much lower.
Prof Robert Rintoul, chair of the Clinical Advisory Group of the UK Lung Cancer Coalition (UKLCC), said: “Establishing a national lung cancer screening programme across the UK would be transformative for lung cancer care saving many thousands of lives every year.
“Modelling work has shown that screening the 55-74 age group is most cost-effective.”
The last detailed international study comparing lung cancer survival rates from 1995 to 2014 had the UK worst out of Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Ireland and New Zealand.
More recent data shows Britain’s cancer survival improvements have consistently lagged behind other major European countries.
Every year there are almost 50,000 lung cancer diagnoses and about 35,000 deaths. Smoking is responsible for more than 70% of lung cancers and increases the risk of at least 14 other types of cancer.
Prof Rintoul, of Cambridge University, added: “One big unsolved challenge is how to help never smokers who are at risk of lung cancer.
“Around 15% of lung cancer cases in the UK are never smokers. Under the current proposals never smokers are not included in the plan.
“The challenge is how to identify never smokers at highest risk for lung cancer so that we do not scan many people who do not need a scan. A lot of research is starting to look at this group of individuals.”
