SOUTHBRIDGE, Mass. – March 3, 2016 – Despite local statistics that placed Southbridge at one of the highest levels of lung cancer incidences and mortalities in the region, there wasn’t a lot of confidence in the success of an early detection lung cancer screening program when it officially launched at Harrington Hospital last year.
But just 12 months later, the Harrington HealthCare System lung cancer team has reported impressive numbers, confirming the program is a success not just in terms of screenings provided, but patient lives saved.
Since the program launched, Harrington has completed several hundred patient scans. Among those, approximately 10 percent have required follow-up, and several patients have already undergone successful treatment for early stage lung cancer.
“Historically, by the time people in our community seek treatment for lung cancer, they are Stage III or IV, which typically have a very low survival rate,” said Dr. Justin Kung, chief radiologist at Harrington. “Our goal has been to identify those patients sooner, and try to increase their chance of overcoming the cancer.”
Last March, Harrington began its early detection screenings by educating physicians, staff and patients about how the program works.
Patients who qualify for the screenings are those aged 55-77, current smokers or those who quit fewer than 15 years ago, and those with a personal history of 30-pack years (meaning one pack per day for 30 years, two packs per day for 15 years and so on).
The program begins with a consultation from a referring physician and includes a discussion about the patient playing a proactive role in their health.
“We were not prepared to just screen a number of individuals and then have them become indifferent to further options for treatment,” said Lisa Johnson, interventional radiology nurse and nurse navigator of the lung screening program at Harrington. “The success of the program includes a commitment from the patient and the physician to follow through with the appropriate recommendations for care.”
The screening is a 10-minute low-dose CT scan, offered at Harrington’s Southbridge and Webster campuses. Harrington’s radiology team in conjunction with leading experts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School study the results. A multidisciplinary team composed of radiologists, oncologists, thoracic surgeons and pulmonologists meet regularly to review the findings and plan appropriate treatment pathways.
“There are a number of protocols to follow – certain results require follow-up examinations, and certain findings require additional conversation with the patient,” Johnson said.
A key component to the program’s success has been the close collaboration between Kung, Dr. Christopher Seidler, director of The Cancer Center at Harrington, and Harrington Chief Medical Officer Dr. Arthur Russo, who teamed up to present the importance of the program to its primary care and referring physicians.
“We consider this program becoming much like we treat mammography,” Dr. Russo explained. “We think of this program like we do other preventive healthcare screening tests and believe that it should be offered to screen for lung cancer in the appropriate group of patients that exhibit high risk (smoking) behavior.”
“We have gone above and beyond what we thought in terms of numbers for patient screenings in this program,” Johnson said. “But more important, we identified dozens of people with a potential cancer, and helped saved lives by offering a treatment plan earlier than what might have occurred in a few months or years’ time.”
Patients who want to learn more about the early detection screening program are encouraged to talk to their primary care physician.
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