Lung cancer screening program takes shape

A lung cancer screening program that Kalispell Regional Healthcare will launch in March has an ulterior motive: It aims to make lung screening as commonplace as a mammogram or colonoscopy.

Comprehensive is the go-to word interventional pulmonologist Dr. Katarine Egressy uses to describe the new program that is taking shape. It includes nearly a dozen specialists and health-care providers who will not only detect lung cancer at all stages but also will offer diagnosis and treatment.

“We are sure that we can provide a seamless experience for the patients where they don’t feel lost within a large system and feel that all of their needs and questions are personally addressed,” said Egressy, who has a lead role in developing the screening program.

“It’s a medical home for the patient, with all of the treatment in one place,” she said.

The clinic will be based at Rocky Mountain Heart & Lung, a department of Kalispell Regional Medical Center that operates in a separate facility near the hospital.

In the past, patients often have had to travel to Seattle or Salt Lake City for surgery and specialty procedures related to lung cancer.

Among the core specialties involved in the screening program are thoracic oncology, radiology and surgery; interventional and general pulmonology, oncology data analysis, social work, palliative medicine and research coordination. A screening nurse navigator will be involved with the team, along with a case manager at some point in the future.

The clinic will contact the primary care provider of each patient who is reviewed to share specific recommendations.

“We’ve really created a multi-specialty group that can decide on diagnosis and subsequent treatment,” Egressy said. “We want to work in collaboration with primary-care providers.”

To qualify for the low-dose CT scan, patients must be between 55 and 75 years old with a “30-pack” history of smoking; that is, they must have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for at least 30 years. Participants can be either active smokers or have quit less than 15 years ago.

Egressy points out that lung cancer takes more lives than prostate, breast and colon cancers combined. While there have been effective national campaigns for breast and colon cancer awareness, the same is not true for lung cancer.

“Lung cancer screening is the new kid on the block,” Egressy said, explaining that historically there has been a stigma attached to lung cancer because “there is the attitude that it is something you bring upon yourself by a history of smoking.”

About half of the lung cancer diagnosed already has spread and is classified as Stage 3. As an interventional pulmonologist, that’s a statistic Egressy is determined to affect with earlier intervention.

The goal of the lung cancer screening program is to make it easier for patients to get screened and then get an assessment of what kind of help they’ll need.

“Having the expertise to deal with that if an abnormality is found is important,” Egressy said. “We will tailor [treatment] to the person. It’s that medical home approach. This will be a very transparent program. We want people to know what’s happening.”

Patients who fall within the qualifications will come in repeatedly to be screened, just like having a routine mammogram, she added.

A lung cancer screening hotline — tentatively 406-212-1739 — will be set up at Rocky Mountain Heart & Lung.

The screenings are a covered benefit under Medicare and Medicaid, as well as most Health Maintenance Organizations, Egressy said.

Due to stringent selection criteria, this is not part of a typical wellness screening, so the patient’s physician must decide if the patient qualifies for the lung cancer screening.

“However, the actual CT scan should come at no cost to the patient once the appropriate qualifications have been met,” Egressy noted.

The screening program can be a conduit for future research projects.

“With the development of a robust repository of patients we can gather data and provide clinical trials,” Egressy said. “We could do research with our own numbers.”

Lung cancer is curable only in the very early stages, she noted.

About 118,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer each year in the United States, and the five-year survival rate is only 16 percent.

The new screening program will collaborate with the Center for Asbestos Related Diseases, or CARD Clinic, in Libby, which continues to offer screening for people with exposure to asbestos related to the former vermiculite mine near Libby.

“We can provide services they don’t have,” Egressy said. “We would handle some of the follow-up with CARD patients.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.