Background
African Americans have been underrepresented in trials showing survival benefit to lung cancer screening. We implemented a multidisciplinary lung cancer screening program in an African American population. We hypothesize that lung cancer screening in an African American population will lead to safe detection and treatment of lung cancer.
Method
In an urban, academic medical center, we prospectively gathered information on African American patients referred to a multidisciplinary lung cancer screening program from October 2015 to December 2017 with a 6 month follow up. We studied, age, gender, smoking history and level of education. We measured lung cancer screening results using Lung-RADs categorizations, diagnosis of cancer, treatment modality and complications.
Result
Of 160 African Americans undergoing lung cancer screening, the average age was 64.2 (SD 5.75), 95 (59.3%) were women, 111 (69.3%) were current smokers, average pack years was 47.2 (SD 17.1) and level of education was less than high school in 52 (32.5%), high school in 53 (33.1%), advanced education in 45 (28.1%) and 10 (6.2%) declined to report. LDCT results (4.3%) Lung-RADs 3; 10 (6.3%). Of the 6 people undergoing invasive procedure for biopsy (3 CT guided needle biopsy, 1 transbronchial needle biopsy, 2 surgical resection) 4 were diagnosed with stage I non-small cell lung cancer. Three of these underwent surgical resection for treatment, and one underwent radiation treatment.
Conclusion
Implementation of a multidisciplinary lung cancer screening program enrolling African Americans at high risk of lung cancer led to detection and treatment of lung cancer in 2.5%. Only 10.7% had positive screens (lung-RADs 3 or 4), 3.8% had an invasive biopsy and no one had complications from diagnostic procedures or treatment. Further study is necessary to understand long-term survival benefit of lung cancer screening.
lung cancer screening, implementation, African American
Lung-RADSTM (or lung imaging reporting and data system) is a classification proposed to aid with findings in low dose CT screening exams for lung cancer.
Early Results of Lung Cancer Screening in an African American Population
C. Erkmen, ,L. Schmidt,S. Sferra, R. Moore, S. Randhawa, M. Mitchell, V. Disesa, L. Kaiser, G. Ma
http://www.jto.org/article/S1556-0864(17)32087-7/fulltext#sec1
November 2017Volume 12, Issue 11, Supplement 2, Pages S2166–S2167
10
Photo: Ad Council, Caregiver Assistance (African-American Market)