By Tracey Drury – Reporter, Buffalo Business First
Sep 30, 2022
As rates of lung cancer continue to climb, providers are taking advantage of new federal guidelines for screening to identify cases sooner and boost survival and cure rates.
The new federal guidelines, issued in March 2021 by the U.S. Preventative Services Taskforce, nearly double the number of individuals eligible for screenings to about 14 million.
According to the American Lung Association, the change — the first update since 2013 — reduces the recommended age from 55 to 50 for people with a history of smoking a pack a day for 20 years, down from 30.
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, with early detection boosting five-year survival rates five times. The changes are also intended to help reach more Black and female smokers, two populations with lower rates of early diagnosis and survival.
Great Lakes Cancer Care is working to expand its outreach for lung cancer screenings in partnership with primary care providers, pulmonologists and radiology partners to better inform at-risk patients. They organization is also investing in technology to treat newly diagnosed cases.
Victor Filadora, president of the collaborative, said a team of experts has been assembled to focus solely on lung cancer, including two thoracic oncology surgeons, an interventional pulmonologist and a medical oncologist who is offering clinical trials on new treatments.
“We have invested in digital pathology resources and hired new pathologists who specialize in the detection of these tumors,” he said.
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center launched its lung cancer screening program in 1998, but rates of screenings remain low – just 6% of eligible people in New York. That’s partly because they’re not reimbursed by insurers in the same way as mammography and breast cancer screenings, said Mary Reid, chief of cancer screening and survivorship.
“Lung cancer screening has been in the pits and still is,” she said. “We weren’t screening as much as we should before and it’s still really low.”
Newer studies show, however, that lowering the age and expanding eligibility will help capture a more diverse population. And there’s also the hope that providers will be reminded to talk to their patients because the change is still new.
“The majority of physicians were not trained to know the guidelines, so they don’t know how effective it is as a screening tool,” Reid said.
She expects the hospital’s new mobile lung screening unit – which launches in October – to reach more people. Mobile mammography buses have had much success outside of clinics and at health fairs.
“The public does not know they’re eligible and they do not understand that if you get the screening, you live. There’s a significant reduction (in mortality) if it’s picked up on screening,” she said. “Most lung cancers we find are going to be early and we can cure it. We need to get the message out.”
https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2022/09/30/providers-shift-focus-to-address-lung-cancer.html