Health

HEALTH • Spring 2016 17 A low-dose CT scan can detect lung cancer at earlier stages, which gives doctors and patients a better chance of beating the disease. and see the effects of smoking," he said. Building awareness Lisa Johnson, an interventional radiology nurse who is the clinical lead for the screening program at Harrington, said she's seen growth in the num- ber of patients coming in for the screening over the past year. The hospital began a marketing cam- paign for scans in early 2015, putting up billboards like the one Checkosky saw, leaving flyers in doc- tors' waiting rooms and reaching out to physicians. "We put it to physicians, stressed how important it is," Johnson said. "This is just like breast cancer is for women over 40." Over the course of 2015, she said, the program screened more than 300 people. Twelve of them qualified for surgery, and others were flagged for additional tests or annual screenings. MetroWest Medical Center started its own lung cancer CT screening program this January. The most intensive part of building the program was ensuring that patients could get the support and counseling they needed, said Dr. Amogh Srivastava, a diagnostic radiology specialist at the hospital. Best preventative: No smoking The scans themselves are a relatively simple process from the patients' perspective, Srivastava said, but it's crucial to use the opportunity to help smokers quit. "Screening is not a substitute for stopping smok- ing," he said. "If you want to not have lung cancer, the most important thing you can do is not smoke." The rate of smoking by U.S. adults dropped from 42 percent in 1965 to 15 percent in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Former longtime smokers are aging into the 55-plus demographic at highest risk, and Srivastava said even 15 percent of Americans is a lot. "There's still a very large number of people who smoke," he said. For members of that population, like Bob Checkosky, even long years of smoking no longer add up to a game of Russian roulette that they're powerless to even try to stop. Since November, Checkosky has been cancer-free, though he's gone back to Harrington for a new round of radiation to protect against cancer reemerging in his brain. "Those people are terrific over there," Checkosky said. "I couldn't be happier with the treatment… Based on my experience, I would recommend [the screening] to anybody that was a lifelong smoker." Breast cancer (female) 231,840 40,290 Lung and bronchus cancer 221,200 158,040 Prostate cancer 220,800 27,540 Colon and rectum cancer 132,700 49,700 Bladder cancer 74,000 16,000 Melanoma of the skin 73,870 9,940 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma 71,850 19,790 Thyroid cancer 62,450 1,950 Kidney and renal pelvis cancer 61,560 14,080 Endometrial cancer 54,870 10,170 Common types Estimated new Estimated of cancer cases, 2015 deaths, 2015 CANCER PROGNOSIS Lung cancer is the second most common type and by far the most deadly. Source: National Cancer Institute: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) P H O T O / E D D C O T E

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