Catching Lung Cancer Early Remains Critical Tool in Fighting the Disease

When the Coronavirus shutdowns hit, a lot of primary and preventive care shut down with the pandemic. Slowly, as clinicians switched to telehealth appointments and facilities set up protocols to protect non-COVID-19 patients, patients started returning for treatment and routine care.

Cancer screenings also declined early on as facilities paused diagnostic testing. One study showed a 46% drop in cancer diagnoses from March 1 to April 18 across six different tumor types, including lung cancer.

“The earlier we can detect lung cancer, the better the outcome,” said Amy Moore, PhD, GO2 for Lung Cancer’s director of science and research, in explaining why it’s vital that people not delay screenings. She noted that the 5-year survival rate for lung cancer drops dramatically from a stage 1 diagnosis (68-92% survival) to a stage 4 diagnosis (0-10% survival).

The good news is that screening numbers are ticking upward in some locations. Other facilities, however, are still seeing troubling signs that patients are putting off screenings that could save their lives.

So how to reassure patients that it’s safe to come back?

Patient relationships and a personal touch.

“It’s all about strong relationships and engaged outreach,” says Angela Criswell, MA, GO2 for Lung Cancer’s associate director of quality screening and program initiatives. She notes that screening centers that have relied on personalized outreach to patients have generally faired best.

GO2 for Lung Cancer hosted a webinar designed to help facilities reprioritize lung cancer screening and engage effectively with patients. The webinar features a case study and introduces a useful new tool: the American College of Radiology’s Return to Screening Toolkit. The toolkit includes a patient safety infographic on what to expect when scheduling their imaging (and how you will keep them safe) along with draft reassurance, return to screening, postponed screening, and referring provider letters.

Here’s how one facility is bouncing back.

Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, a GO2 for Lung Cancer Screening Center of Excellence and Care Continuum Center of Excellence, has been working to catch up ever since temporarily pausing operations in early March. And it’s working. Last year, they conducted 4,100 lung cancer screenings. This year, despite being closed for two months, they’ve conducted 3,300 screenings to date.

Connie Buckley, a nurse navigator in the Lung Cancer Screening Program, attributes the resurgence in annual screenings to good relationships with the primary care providers within Norton Healthcare System. “We reach out regularly to our primary care providers, and we did so once we reopened,” she said. “They’ve been instrumental in encouraging their patients to come back in for their routine screenings.”

While there’s a lot of good news in the uptick in screening numbers, Norton Cancer Institute is also seeing the impact that the pandemic-triggered shutdown has had on the number of abnormal findings. Jenny Frantz, a thoracic patient navigator in the same facility, said that they are seeing more patients now with significant abnormal findings on CTs – LRADS 4. “It’s almost twice the numbers we’ve had in the past,” says Frantz. “And it’s keeping our pulmonologist and thoracic surgeon busy as we get people evaluated, diagnosed, and into treatment plans.” This is a sobering reminder of why it’s so critical to get patients back in for baseline and annual screenings as soon as possible – and why GO2 for Lung Cancer, ACR, and others are speaking out and offering tools to help screening centers nationwide.