Prevent Cancer Foundation is excited to announce that Claudia Henschke, Ph.D., M.D., will speak on “Lung Cancer Screening: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going” at the 2014 Dialogue for Action®: Right-Sizing Cancer Screening. As a true pioneer in lung cancer screening and a tireless advocate for patients, Dr. Henschke will share this story as no other person can.
Trained first in mathematical statistics and computer science before she decided to become a physician, Dr. Henschke brought her considerable training and experience to bear on the complex problem of developing a way to detect lung cancer earlier, when treatment would be more successful. Working with her team at Weill Cornell Medical Center and then Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York over many years to study the potential of CT (computed tomography) screening to provide such detection, she has seen their research become practice, as the December 2013 USPSTF (U.S. Preventive Services Task Force) guidelines for lung cancer screening stated,
The USPSTF recommends annual screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography in adults ages 55 to 80 years who have a 30 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years.
Screening should be discontinued once a person has not smoked for 15 years or develops a health problem that substantially limits life expectancy or the ability or willingness to have curative lung surgery.
Grade: B recommendation.
In a November 2013 article in the ASCO Post, Dr. Henschke noted the meaning that the upcoming release of the guidelines had for her: “I consider the USPSTF’s recent B recommendation for lung cancer screening to be a highlight of my career. It means that Medicare will now cover screening, and people at high risk for lung cancer can finally get screened, no matter what their socioeconomic status. That’s all I ever wanted.”
Dialogue attendees will also have the opportunity to talk informally with Dr. Henschke in an “Armchair Dialogue”. An innovation for the 2014 conference, the Armchair Dialogue gives attendees an opportunity to chat with leaders in the cancer screening field in small conversational groupings lasting 30 minutes. Similar to informal discussions at TED conferences, Armchair Dialogues offer another way that people committed to cancer screening can share knowledge and experience.
The Dialogue for Action: Right-Sizing Cancer Screening will be held on March 20–21, 2014 (with March 19 as a pre-conference day) at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel. Follow us on Twitter @PreventCancer, and use #Dialogue2014 whenever you tweet about the conference. We can’t wait to see you in March!
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