This press conference took place on January 24, 2017, at the STS 53rd Annual Meeting in Houston. For more information, contact media@sts.org.
Implementing lung cancer screening as a high-quality preventive health service in a community setting is feasible, but comes with several key challenges, according to a scientific presentation at the 53rd Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
“Successful implementation of lung cancer screening will help reduce death from lung cancer,” said Doraid Jarrar, MD, from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, who led the study. “But unfortunately, lung cancer screening does not share the same broad support from the public and the government as do breast and colon cancer screening. In addition, lung cancer remains stigmatized because of its association with cigarette smoking.”
Dr. Jarrar, Simran Randhawa, MD, of Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, PA, and colleagues conducted a 12-month prospective study of eligible patients at Einstein. Data were collected using the American College of Radiology (ACR) Lung Imaging Reporting and Data System (Lung-RADS) and compared to corresponding data from Einstein’s Tumor Registry. A lung navigator confirmed eligibility of 278 patients using National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) criteria and provided feedback to patients and referring physicians.
To read the full release, visit sts.org/media.
