Australia’s national lung cancer screening program has passed 100,000 participants just over a year after its launch, giving medical imaging AI companies one of their clearest opportunities yet to prove their technology in a large-scale public screening program.
Australia introduced the National Lung Cancer Screening Program (NLCSP) in July 2025, offering free low-dose CT scans to people aged 50 to 70 who are at high risk of developing lung cancer. It was the country’s first new national cancer screening program in about two decades.
More than 230 primary lung cancers have been detected since the program began.
Among the companies participating in the rollout is South Korea’s Coreline Soft, which is supplying chest CT analysis software through a local partner.
The company said its AI solution has so far been used in roughly 30,000 screening examinations.
That figure is notable because it suggests the Korean company has already secured a meaningful foothold in a national program that is still relatively early in its rollout.
Coreline Soft estimates that the number is equivalent to roughly 40% of the actual screening volume over the comparable period. It is not an official market-share figure, however, as the government’s participant count and the company’s AI analysis volume are compiled on different bases.
The numbers are starting to matter
Medical imaging AI companies have spent much of the past several years demonstrating how accurately their algorithms can detect lung nodules and other abnormalities.
Australia is providing a different test.
National screening means processing large numbers of CT scans across multiple hospitals and imaging centers. Software has to fit into existing reading workflows and perform consistently outside the controlled environment of a clinical study.
That makes the number of scans actually processed by an AI system increasingly relevant.
For Coreline Soft, the roughly 30,000 examinations in Australia provide a reference that could be useful well beyond the Australian market.
The company has concentrated on chest CT analysis and lung cancer screening for years. Its AVIEW platform is designed to identify and measure pulmonary nodules and provide radiologists with information used in assessing suspected lung cancer.
Rather than entering Australia after the screening market had matured, Coreline Soft positioned itself during the early stages of the national program.
The next question is how far it can extend that position.
The company is currently conducting trials with additional large healthcare institutions and is looking to expand into public-sector providers. It has set an internal goal of increasing the potential volume covered by its technology to as much as 70% of the market.
That remains a target rather than contracted volume, but additional hospital adoption would substantially increase the importance of Australia within Coreline Soft’s overseas business.
Australia adds to Coreline Soft’s screening track record
The Australian program also fits into a broader strategy the company has pursued in South Korea and Europe.
Lung cancer screening is gradually developing into a distinct market within medical imaging AI. Unlike one-off hospital installations, national screening programs generate recurring volumes of examinations and require standardized interpretation across a wide population.
That plays to companies that already have experience with screening workflows.
It could also change how hospitals and governments evaluate AI vendors. Accuracy remains the starting point, but references from national screening programs, integration experience and the ability to process large CT volumes are becoming harder to separate from the technology itself.
Coreline Soft will have an opportunity to make that case on home ground later this month.
The company is scheduled to participate in the 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), which opens in Seoul on Sept. 12. It plans to meet lung cancer and thoracic imaging specialists and share experience accumulated from screening programs in South Korea, Australia and Europe.
Australia may be the more important reference at the moment.
A year ago, its national program was largely an opportunity for medical AI suppliers. With more than 100,000 people now screened and tens of thousands of examinations already passing through AI systems, it is becoming evidence of what that opportunity looks like in practice.
For Coreline Soft, the task now is less about proving that its software can analyze a lung CT than showing that it can remain embedded as the screening program grows.
