This lung cancer screening program is designed for early detection of lung cancer in high-risk smokers. The patient should not be showing any symptoms of lung cancer. The goal of lung cancer screening is to find the cancer early enough for surgery to be an option.
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MICHAEL HANLEY: We’ve set up a program to screen high-risk smokers to try to detect lung cancer early. Almost 80 percent of lung cancers are detected where they’ve already spread to other parts of the body, and at that point surgery is not an option. So we really want to catch the cancers when surgery is still an option.
AIMEE STRONG: Patients have to be between the ages of 55 and 77. They have to either still smoke, or have quit smoking within the last 15 years. And then they have to have smoked a good amount over their lifetime, which most patients have. The other important thing is patients have to not have any worrisome signs of lung cancer.
MICHAEL HANLEY: If you do an annual low-dose non-contrast chest CT, you’ll find nodules, or small cancers, early where they can be treated for a cure. The screening is fairly quick. ItÕs a non-con chest CT so you donÕt have to get an IV. You have to lay down. ItÕs the small donut, not the long tube one. It takes about 10 seconds to go through the CT scan, and you’ll get a report the same day.
AIMEE STRONG: Lung cancer screening is an important preventative health benefit just like mammograms for breast cancer and colonoscopies for colon cancer. So many times people donÕt think twice about doing those things. I think a lot of patients are hesitant to come in because they’re afraid we’re going to harp on them about how bad smoking is, and thatÕs just not the case. We meet patients where they are and really talk about the things that are important to them based on what I learn about them during the office visit. Another interesting fact about lung cancer screening that not a lot of patients know is that it’s covered by insurance. For Medicare recipients, it’s covered at 100 percent with no out-of-pocket cost, including the office visit with me. Virginia Medicaid also covers lung cancer screening, and almost every insurance company offers lung cancer screening as a preventative health benefit.
MICHAEL HANLEY: The best thing to do is to talk to your doctor first. We want to make sure that when people enroll in the program that they come back every year and are seen year after year. It’s not a type of program that you just do once and we don’t follow it up. We want a longer relationship with the patients.
