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L i v e Yo u n g e r L o n g e r
Teaming up
St. Helena Hospital has a new lung cancer screening program with one important goal: saving lives.
“We want to find lung cancer earlier,” says lung specialist Hossein Razavi, MD, medical director of
St. Helena’s Lung Health Screening Program. “Lung cancer may not produce symptoms — or people
may not recognize the symptoms — until cancer is advanced. That makes treatment very challenging.
In fact, more people die from lung cancer than from colorectal, breast and prostate cancer combined.
That’s a surprise to many people. We want to change that. Screening really is a breakthrough. Like
other cancers, lung cancer can be cured when it is caught early enough,” says Dr. Razavi.
to beat lung cancer
Low-dose CT screening —
the most effective way
to detect early-stage lung cancer
Screening is for high-risk patients. If they meet
inclusion criteria, they are paired up with a nurse
navigator, who guides them through screening.
He or she stays with them through any follow-up
and treatment too. Screening is done with low-
dose computed tomography (LDCT). The scan
gives detailed views of the lungs. It takes just 10
to 15 minutes. No anesthesia is needed.
The screening was developed from a large,
recent national clinical trial. High-risk patients
screened with LDCT had 20 percent fewer
deaths from lung cancer than the group
screened with chest x-rays. “LDCT uses a very
low dose of radiation. It is higher than a typical
x-ray, but the benefits of the screening far
outweigh the risks of not having the screening,
especially if lung cancer is detected,” says
Jennifer Ortelle, MSN, RN, CNL, the lung health
nurse navigator at St. Helena Hospital.
If nothing suspicious is found, patients are
urged to be screened in the future too. Patients
may need additional tests if the LDCT shows
suspicious nodules in their lungs. A special
surgical team will use several kinds of tests,
including some of the newest available, such as
endobronchial ultrasound and electromagnetic
navigation bronchoscopy.
Such tests allow doctors to take a close look
at tissue and get samples to check for cancer
cells. “We are trying to make a diagnosis in
the least invasive way possible,” says
Andreas Sakopou
lo
s, MD, a cardiothoracic
surgeon who is part of St. Helena’s lung
health team. “The tools we have today are
very precise, very sophisticated.”
Treatment for lung cancer depends on many
factors, including the location and stage of
the cancer. Thankfully, most nodules are
not cancerous, says chemotherapy and
Jennifer Ortelle, MSN, RN,
CNL, is a specially trained
lung health nurse navigator
Hossein Razavi, MD, FACP,
FCCP, FAASM, Critical Care
Medicine, Pulmonology and
Sleep Medicine
