Pleural Space | Conversations in Lung Cancer

Creating Screening Opportunities Pt. 1: Leveraging the Breast

Our fourth installment of the “Expanding Horizons" series is part one of a two-part discussion on creating screening opportunities. In part one, discover how lung screening can draw from the success of mammography in promoting early detection and improving outcomes for lung cancer patients.
Meet our conversation leaders:Kim Sandler, MD, is an Associate Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, specializing in Cardiothoracic Imaging. Dr. Sandler serves as the Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Lung Screening Program, with a primary research focus on improving lung screening outreach, particularly among women and underrepresented minorities. Her work aims to enhance the ability to differentiate benign and malignant lung nodules using CT imaging and includes identifying high-risk women engaged in breast cancer screening to encourage their enrollment in the lung screening program.
Leah Backhus, MD, trained in general surgery at the University of Southern California and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of California Los Angeles. She practices at Stanford Hospital and is Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the VA Palo Alto. She is also Co-Director of the Thoracic Surgery Clinical Research Program and has grant funding through the Veterans Affairs Administration and NIH. Her current research interests are in imaging surveillance following treatment for lung cancer and cancer survivorship.
Additional information on this episode’s topic and guests, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources.
Access the recordings of the 2022 webinar series that inspired this podcast series at https://pages.acr.org/NLCRT_Accelerating_Screening_Uptake.html.

Referring Providers and Lung Screening

As we advance in our "Expanding Horizons" series, come and join us as we explore the core components that underpin early detection, specifically focusing on referring providers and their critical role in this process.
Meet our conversation leaders:
Denise Lee, a volunteer spokesperson for the American Lung Association (ALA) and a lung cancer survivor, embodies the essence of a fervent advocate for lung cancer screening. Theresa Roelke, MSN, RN, AGNP-C, is a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner for Maine Medical Center where she manages a comprehensive, patient-centered Lung Screening Program which focuses on lung health. She also supports the Maine Lung Cancer Coalition which serves to increase lung screening and lung screening awareness across Maine. Michael Gieske, MD, is a primary care physician at St. Elizabeth Physicians in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, and Director of Lung Cancer Screening at community-based St. Elizabeth Hospital. He is a champion for early lung cancer screening and a supporter of the White Ribbon Project, once taking a white ribbon on a 9,000-foot elevation climb to Mt. Everest Base Camp to raise awareness that anyone with lungs can get lung cancer.
Additional information on this episode’s topic and guests, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources. Access the recordings of the 2022 webinar series that inspired this podcast series at https://pages.acr.org/NLCRT_Accelerating_Screening_Uptake.html.

The Glue (Navigators in Lung Cancer)

Welcome back to our Lung Cancer 201: Expanding Horizons series. In this episode, we delve into the critical role of lung cancer navigators—the glue that holds together any comprehensive lung cancer program. So, what is the role of a navigator in a lung cancer setting? Join us while we sit down with four incredible and experienced navigators who are transforming the landscape of lung cancer care.
Meet our conversation leaders:
Joelle Fathi, DNP, RN, ARNP, CTTS, FAANP, FAAN, has served as the lead nurse practitioner and Clinical Program Director of Lung Cancer Screening, Incidental Pulmonary Nodule, and Smoking Cessation programs providing her extended experiences in thoracic oncology navigation. She is an Associate Clinical Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Washington, and currently serves as the Chief Healthcare Delivery Officer at GO2 for Lung Cancer where she leads the Excellence in Healthcare Delivery program dedicated to advancing quality care across the lung cancer continuum and supporting and training the navigators who serve tirelessly on the front lines to create more lung cancer survivors. Mary Pasquinelli, DNP, FNP-BC, CTTS, is a nurse practitioner specializing in lung cancer screening, pulmonary nodule management, and lung cancer at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UI Health). Mary’s clinical focus is on reducing barriers to care, decreasing health disparities, and improving lung cancer outcomes. Michelle Ottersbach DNP, MS, RN, CNL is a nurse navigator and navigation consultant in the early detection of lung cancer over the past 10 years in academic and community healthcare systems throughout the country. In 2012, she found her life-calling in lung cancer when UC Health-University of Cincinnati Cancer Institute asked her to help them implement their lung cancer screening research study into the first multidisciplinary lung cancer screening program in the region. Claudia Miller, BSN, RN, OCN, ONN-CGI has been a practicing Oncology RN for approaching 22 years, including 15 years at the Medical University of South Carolina. Prior to entering the nursing field, she held a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and worked as a Certified Social Worker with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).
Additional information on this episode’s topic and guests, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources. Access the recordings of the 2022 webinar series that inspired this podcast series at https://pages.acr.org/NLCRT_Accelerating_Screening_Uptake.html.

Expanding Horizons: The Power of Data

Welcome to "Lung Cancer 201: Expanding Horizons," our new series focusing on the challenges unique to established programs, clinicians, researchers, and advocates. You've made it past the first hurdle; time to explore what's next. 
In this first episode, Dr. Ella Kazerooni sits down with Dr. Robert Smith and Dr. Gerard Silvestri to discuss advances in the lung cancer space in 2022, including the "One Million Screens" paper, the benefits of the roundtable model, and National Lung Cancer Screening Day. 
Ella A. Kazerooni, MD, is a Professor of Radiology & Internal Medicine, and serves as the Associate Chief Clinical Officer for the Diagnostic and Clinical Information Oversight Team within the University of Michigan Medical Group (UMMG). Dr. Kazerooni is the inaugural chair of the American Cancer Society’s Lung Cancer Roundtable (NLCRT), current Chair of the American College of Radiology's (ACR) lung cancer screening registry and LungRADS committee, and serves as the vice chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guideline on Lung Cancer Screening. Robert Smith, PhD, is a cancer epidemiologist and Senior Vice President, Cancer Screening at the American Cancer Society (ACS). Dr. Smith was one of the founding members of the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, and has served as its Co-Director for 20 years. He also is a founding member of the NLCRT and the Principle Investigator of the first 3-year supporting grant. Gerard Silvestri, MD, MS, is a lung cancer pulmonologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, and served on the DSMB of the national PLCO screening trial representing the lung arm of the trial as well as part of the epidemiology working group for the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). Dr. Silvestri also serves as a Steering Committee member and Task Group Chair on the NLCRT. 
 
Content note: this episode contains stigmatizing language. The American Cancer Society National Lung Cancer Roundtable and American College of Radiology are committed to the adoption of language, phrasing, and imagery that are person-first, judgment-free, and non-stigmatizing when discussing lung cancer. This shift in language takes time and dedicated effort, and slips happen. For information on how to eliminate lung cancer stigma in your speech patterns, written work, and presentations, please visit https://www.iaslc.org/IASLCLanguageGuide for the IASLC’s Language Guide.
Additional information on this episode’s topic and guests, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources. Access the recordings of the 2022 webinar series that inspired this podcast series at https://pages.acr.org/NLCRT_Accelerating_Screening_Uptake.html.

Thoracic Surgery and the Modern Paradigm for Screening Nodule Management

To wrap up our “Power of Partnerships” series, Dr. Douglas Wood has a conversation about the thoracic surgeon’s role in lung cancer with fellow thoracic surgeons Dr. Leah Backhus, Dr. Tom Varghese, and Dr. Farhood Farjah. They discuss the surgeon’s role in screening programs, evaluating nodules from a surgical perspective, and how to avoid harm and minimize unnecessary surgery for patients without cancer.
Douglas E. Wood, MD, FACS, FRCSEd is the Chair of Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, and a physician with the Seattle Care Alliance. Dr. Wood has previously served as president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Leah Backhus, MD, MPH, FACS is an Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University. Dr. Backhus is the Co-Director of the Thoracic Surgery Clinical Research Program and Associate Program Director of the Thoracic CT Surgery Residency Training Program at Stanford. Thomas K. Varghese Jr., MD, MS is an Associate Professor of Surgery and the Head of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Utah. Dr. Varghese has also previously served as the Interim Executive Medical Director at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Farhood Farjah, MD, MPH, FACS is an Associate Professor of Surgery and an Endowed Chair of Lung Cancer Research at the University of Washington. Dr. Farjah is a physician with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
As a follow-up to the National Lung Cancer Roundtable and American College of Radiology’s 2021 webinar series, the “Power of Partnerships” limited podcast series will feature conversations currently happening in the world of lung cancer with the people pushing the field into the future.
Additional information on this topic, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources.

Reaching Vulnerable Populations

Continuing the focus on patients, Dr. Efrén J. Flores speaks with Dr. Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang, Alexandra L. Potter, and Angela Zhou from the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative about outreach to populations vulnerable to lung cancer that are underserved in lung screening. This includes identifying how stigma is a barrier, finding ways to establish education and trust in communities typically distrustful of the medical establishment, and interdisciplinary approaches to cancer screening.
Efrén J. Flores, MD, is a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also serves as Officer of Radiology Community Health Improvement and Equity, and an Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang, MD, is an attending thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. The American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative (ALSCI) was founded by Dr. Yang and Alexandra L. Potter, Director of ALSCI, to spread awareness about the importance of lung cancer screening for high-risk patients. Angela Zhou is the Outreach Coordinator for ALSCI.
As a follow-up to the National Lung Cancer Roundtable and American College of Radiology’s 2021 webinar series, the “Power of Partnerships” limited podcast series will feature conversations currently happening in the world of lung cancer with the people pushing the field into the future.
Additional information on this topic, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources.

Patients Are Looking For a Community: How Lung Cancer Advocacy Works

For 2022's National Patient Recognition Week, Elridge Proctor of the Go2 Foundation sits down with Heidi and Pierre Onda of the White Ribbon Project and Nichelle Stigger from LUNGevity to discuss how they went from patient to patient advocates and ways those without lung cancer can use their voices for change.
Elridge Proctor, MPA, is the Senior Director for Government Affairs and Public Policy at the Go2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, with over 15 years of experience in patient advocacy and non-profit work. Heidi Onda, MS, is a health educator and fitness trainer as well as a lung cancer survivor. She and her husband Pierre Onda, MD, MPH, founded "The White Ribbon Project" in 2020 to promote awareness and the idea that “anyone with lungs can get lung cancer.” Nichelle Stigger is a middle school teacher and Board Member for the LUNGevity Foundation who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016.    
As a followup to the National Lung Cancer Roundtable and American College of Radiology’s 2021 webinar series, the “Power of Partnerships” limited podcast series will feature conversations currently happening in the world of lung cancer with the people pushing the field into the future.
Additional information on this topic, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources.

Patient and Family Centered Care in Lung Cancer

Dr. Debra Dyer and experienced patient advocates Rhonda Meckstroth and Gina Hollenbeck discuss shifting lung cancer from a quantitative perspective to a patient and family centered one, including changing the face of lung cancer, and how medicine can further support patients beginning immediately post diagnosis.
Debra Dyer, MD, FACR, is the Chair of Radiology at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Dyer also leads the lung screening program at National Jewish Health, and serves as Committee Chair of the ACR’s Lung Cancer Screening Steering Committee. Rhonda Meckstroth has been a patient advocate since 2015, when her husband Jeff was diagnosed with stage IV non-small cell adenocarcinoma with an ALK mutation. Mrs. Meckstroth serves on the NLCRT Task Force Triage for Appropriate Treatment and Stigma/Nihilism Task Force, and is a leader in the ALK Positive Support Group. Gina Hollenbeck, BSN, started her work in lung cancer advocacy when she was diagnosed with stage IV ALK positive lung cancer in 2015. Mrs. Hollenbeck was Board President of ALK Positive Inc, and now serves on the executive board.   
As a followup to the National Lung Cancer Roundtable and American College of Radiology’s 2021 webinar series, the “Power of Partnerships” limited podcast series will feature conversations currently happening in the world of lung cancer with the people pushing the field into the future.
Additional information on this topic, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources.

Lung Cancer Screening and the Veteran Experience: Past, Present, and Future

Dr. Nichole Tanner, nurse practitioner Shannon Magee, and experienced patient advocate Jim Pantelas discuss the unique challenges of treating lung cancer through the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital system, and the support provided to veterans pre- and post-diagnosis.
Nichole Tripician Tanner, MD, MSCR, is a pulmonologist at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina, with a joint appointment as a Professor of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Dr. Tanner has led the lung screening program at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center since 2013, as well as the lung screening program at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center. Shannon Magee, FNP, has been the lead nurse navigator for the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center's lung screening program since 2015. Jim Pantelas is a 15-year cancer survivor and navy veteran who has partnered with the Go2 Foundation for Lung Cancer to lobby Capitol Hill for increased funding for lung cancer research and early detection programs.
As a followup to the National Lung Cancer Roundtable and American College of Radiology’s 2021 webinar series, the “Power of Partnerships” limited podcast series will feature conversations currently happening in the world of lung cancer with the people pushing the field into the future.
Additional information on this topic, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources.

Social Determinants of Health and Lung Cancer Care and Control

Dr. Ruth Carlos, Dr. Lucy Spalluto, and patient advocate Andrea Borondy-Kitts discuss social determinants of health and how they affect lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, including what disparities currently exist, how policy changes could reduce those disparities, and how to move closer to health equity.
Ruth C. Carlos, MD, MS, FACR is a Professor of Radiology, and serves as the Assistant Chair for Clinical Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Carlos additionally serves as the National Lung Cancer Roundtable’s Policy Task Force Chair and as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR). Lucy Spalluto, MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Radiology as well as a health services researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Spalluto serves on the ACR's Commission on Patient- and Family-Centered Care and Commission for Women and Diversity, and as a Past President of the American Association for Women in Radiology (AAWR). Andrea Borondy-Kitts, MS, MPH, is a retired aerospace engineer who became a patient advocate after losing her husband to lung cancer in 2013. Ms. Borondy-Kitts is an Associate Editor for the JACR and serves as an experienced patient advocate to a number of national and local organizations, including the ACR and NLCRT, and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Cancer Prevention & Control Network.
As a follow-up to the National Lung Cancer Roundtable and American College of Radiology’s 2021 webinar series, the “Power of Partnerships” limited podcast series will feature conversations currently happening in the world of lung cancer with the people pushing the field into the future.
Additional information on this topic, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources.