Updated Guidelines for Lung Screening Aim to Reduce Disparities
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has formally recommended changes to lung cancer screening guidelines in an effort to reduce outcome disparities between African American and white patients.
The decision is based in part on research led by Melinda Aldrich, Ph.D., an associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The research team included Kim Sandler, M.D., an assistant professor of radiology and radiological sciences and co-director of the Vanderbilt Lung Screening Program.
Health disparity for blacks exists within lung screening guidelines
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines that determine which smokers qualify for CT scans exclude significant numbers of African Americans who develop lung cancer, a health disparity that merits modifications to lung cancer screening criteria, according to a study from Vanderbilt researchers, and TREAT members, Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MPH, Kim Sandler, MD, Eric Grogan, MD, MPH, and Jeffrey Blume, PhD, as well as William Blot, PhD, and Sarah Mercaldo, PhD.
Team explores fungal infection quandary in lung cancer screenings
The Vanderbilt team studying histoplasmosis includes TREAT team members (front row, from left) Heidi Chen, PhD, Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MPH, (back row, from left) Stephen Deppen, PhD, Eric Grogan, MD, MPH, and Jeffrey Blume, PhD. (photo by Steve Green).
Their work, published October 2018 in Emerging Infectious Diseases, revealed that histoplasmosis is prevalent beyond previously identified regions of the United States and led to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updating its maps in December.
A decade after lung cancer, aspiring minister aims for a ‘significant life’
An illness and CT-scan led to a diagnosis of lung cancer for Mr. Taylor Stokes. TREAT member Eric Grogan, MD, MPH, performed the surgery to remove the tumor from Mr. Stokes’ lung and now Mr. Stokes has annual follow-up scans through Vanderbilt’s Lung Screening Program. Read Mr. Stokes’ story at www.mysouthernhealth.com.
Lung screening program continues to grow
Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) Lung Screening Program for patients at high risk for cancer recently reached a milestone, enrolling more than 700 patients and performing more than 1,000 CT screening examinations. TREAT member Kim Sandler, MD, Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, is co-director of the Lung Screening Program.
Dr. Eric Grogan appears on NewsChannel 5 OpenLine: Lung Cancer
Dr. Eric Grogan appears on NewsChannel 5 OpenLine along with Dr. Pierre Massion, Director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) Cancer Early Detection and Prevention Initiative, and lung cancer survivor Kathy Leiser. The segment promotes lung cancer awareness and highlights developments in the treatment of lung cancer.
TREAT team to participate in recently awarded U54 grant
Members of the TREAT team will participate in a recently awarded U54 grant which will build a Vanderbilt-Meharry-Miami Center of Excellence for Precision Medicine and Population Health. The new center will enable research using approaches to precision medicine to eradicate health disparities, specifically those among African Americans and Latinos.
Melinda Aldrich, Ph.D., interviewed on Public Health Minute with William Latimer
Melinda Aldrich, Ph.D., is interviewed on Lehman College's Public Health Minute with William Latimer regarding her research focusing on lung cancer in African Americans.
