Lung Cancer Month and Early Detection Screening Program
Lung cancer is the second-most common cancer affecting men and women. Jean Comeau, Interventional Radiology Nurse and Nurse Navigator for the Lung Screening Program, discusses the importance of early detection.
Featuring:
Jean Comeau, RN, BSN
Jean Comeau, RN, BSN, has more than 30 years of experience as a registered nurse. She assists with Interventional Radiology procedures at Harrington and also leads the healthcare system's Lung Cancer Program as its nurse navigator. Transcription:
Prakash Chandran (Host): Today, we’re going to be talking about lung cancer and early detection screening. Now, so many of us are connected to or know someone with this disease and it’s not surprising given that it’s the second most common cancer in both men and women. Normally, by the time most lung cancer is detected, it’s already advanced and at an untreatable stage but luckily, Harrington offers a fantastic and recently accredited lung cancer early detection screening program that we will learn about today. let’s talk about it with Jean Comeau, an Interventional Radiology Nurse and Nurse Navigator of the Lung Screening Program at Harrington Hospital.
This is Healthy Takeout, the podcast from Harrington Hospital. I’m Prakash Chandran. So, Jean, let’s just start by understanding what causes lung cancer.
Jean Comeau, RN, BSN (Guest): There are many causes of lung cancer but predominantly smoking or smoke exposure is one of the highest causes of lung cancer and lung cancer deaths. That’s why we became interested in pursuing this program for our public so that we could serve them better.
Host: Okay, so, when we talk about screening for lung cancer, is this for everyone that smokes or are there any other risk factors that cause people to need screening?
Jean: This particular program is designated just for smokers or smokers who have stopped smoking within the last 15 years. And the criteria for this is set up by Medicare and the research shows that people that have what they call pack-year meaning how many packs they smoke within a year for greater than 30 years are at a higher incidence for developing lung cancer.
Host: I’m curious as to what the screening looks like. Is it some sort of x-ray or is it some sort of scan? Maybe talk a little bit about that.
Jean: It’s a CAT scan. So, it has a lower dose of radiation than other CAT scans. It’s an exam that takes less than five minutes. It’s for people that are nervous about, you know is it a tube? It’s not. It’s the one that looks like a donut and as I said, the scan itself takes less than five minutes. So, it’s very unobtrusive. There’s no IVs. There’s nothing else just they go in, they lay down, we do the scan, they are done.
Host: it seems very un-invasive. It doesn’t seem like people will really need to miss work or anything like that. They just schedule an appointment, come in and it’s done, right?
Jean: We do them here at Harrington seven days a week. And we do them from seven in the morning till seven at night. So, we are definitely working to meet the needs of our community and work around their work schedules and we try to be as flexible as we can to meet their needs and as I said, the exam itself takes five minutes so, paperwork and all they are usually here 15 minutes.
Host: Yeah, you mentioned that it’s a low dose of radiation. But just to alleviate people’s concerns, are there any risks associated with this scan at all?
Jean: There are no risks with the CT at all. None.
Host: So, let’s say you are a person that falls into the criteria that you mentioned; how often should they be getting screened?
Jean: So, it’s an annual screening. The program recommends annual screening for at least three years. if there is something that’s determined, is questionable, we may ask you to come back in three months or six months to look at that further and then if that all turns our fine; then we go back to annual screening. If we do see something, we may recommend additional diagnostic testing or consult with a pulmonologist. We also on these scans, have found quite a few what we call incidental findings meaning that when we are looking at the lungs, we see other parts of the body so we see things maybe in the thyroid or the breast or other parts of the body and we’ve actually found some significant findings that we’ve then gone on to be able to help the person have early detection and with early screening, early detection, the prognosis is always good.
Host: Yeah, I think one thing that’s really important to understand is that for a lot of lung cancer, the symptoms don’t express themselves oftentimes until it’s too late. So, for the people listening, it’s really important to be proactive and to get that annual screening done if you are over the age of 55 and you have smoked a pack a day for 30 years. and certainly, if you are still smoking, it’s really important to get that done. Wouldn’t you say that’s correct?
Jean: That is correct. And just to inform the public, 65% of the patients that we have found that have positive cancer findings have been stage one which is very treatable and has an excellent prognosis. So, that’s another reason to encourage people to come early even though they are scared and what happens a lot is people feel they are afraid. The word cancer scares people. And they are afraid and what they need to recognize is that if we find it early and treat it early; the prognosis is usually very good.
Host: Yeah, that sounds really good. And just to get a sense, what does stage one treatment look like?
Jean: Well oftentimes, it’s just s simple OR procedure where they surgically remove that piece of the lung and depending on what they find, very often they don’t need further treatment, meaning they don’t need chemotherapy or radiation but if they do, we certainly offer that here through our cancer center. The people with stage one as I said, very often don’t require further treatment other than the surgical procedure and then of course, we follow them very closely to make sure that nothing else is going on, or there isn’t further disease developing later on. So, we follow them extremely closely after that.
Host: So, I’m curious as to any advice that you might have for someone that potentially has a loved one that has smoked for a while, maybe it’s their father or their grandfather or grandmother, but just doesn’t want to get screened for whatever reason. Do you have any tips or tricks for getting them to come in?
Jean: Well, it’s not a trick, it’s just that I try to talk to them reasonably and what happens a lot with smokers is they almost have a guilt factor that they feel like they did this to themselves because they willingly smoked. And so, they kind of shut down about it and I try to explain to them this is absolutely a no blame society. We are not looking to blame you for causing yourself this problem. We are here to help you. And if we can detect what’s going on with you early, and I encourage them to know that we are not going to make any judgments on them. We just want to help them to make sure that they’re healthy. And again, reiterate to them that there’s no cost. That it is covered by the majority of insurances. There is only one I think that doesn’t cover it. And that the test takes less than 15 minutes and they will be out of here. So, it doesn’t interrupt their day very much. We get the results to them within – I send them a result letter within 24 to 48 hours so, they have an idea of what’s going on. And we are working very closely with their primary care providers to help them to make the right decision for them.
Host: Yeah, it really does seem so easy, painless and quick. So, there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t do this. So, just in wrapping up here, is there anything else that you want our audience to know about the lung screening program?
Jean: That we are here for them. We offer screenings here in South Bridge and in Webster at our Webster campus. As I said, we do them in South Bridge seven days a week. We do them in Webster Monday through Friday. We will be as flexible as possible for them. If they are interested, they can call me directly and I can call their primary care. We do require an order from the physician. But I often have patients call me directly and I will contact their physician for them. I will set it up. I will make sure that we get the insurance approval all done and then work with them to make the time convenient for them.
Host: Perfect. Well I really appreciate your time and insight today Jean. That’s Jean Comeau, an Interventional Radiology Nurse and Nurse Navigator of the Lung Screening Program at Harrington Hospital. Thanks for checking out this episode of Healthy Takeout. Head to www.harringtonhospital.org and search lung cancer screening for more information about this topic. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. Thanks and we’ll talk next time.
Prakash Chandran (Host): Today, we’re going to be talking about lung cancer and early detection screening. Now, so many of us are connected to or know someone with this disease and it’s not surprising given that it’s the second most common cancer in both men and women. Normally, by the time most lung cancer is detected, it’s already advanced and at an untreatable stage but luckily, Harrington offers a fantastic and recently accredited lung cancer early detection screening program that we will learn about today. let’s talk about it with Jean Comeau, an Interventional Radiology Nurse and Nurse Navigator of the Lung Screening Program at Harrington Hospital.
This is Healthy Takeout, the podcast from Harrington Hospital. I’m Prakash Chandran. So, Jean, let’s just start by understanding what causes lung cancer.
Jean Comeau, RN, BSN (Guest): There are many causes of lung cancer but predominantly smoking or smoke exposure is one of the highest causes of lung cancer and lung cancer deaths. That’s why we became interested in pursuing this program for our public so that we could serve them better.
Host: Okay, so, when we talk about screening for lung cancer, is this for everyone that smokes or are there any other risk factors that cause people to need screening?
Jean: This particular program is designated just for smokers or smokers who have stopped smoking within the last 15 years. And the criteria for this is set up by Medicare and the research shows that people that have what they call pack-year meaning how many packs they smoke within a year for greater than 30 years are at a higher incidence for developing lung cancer.
Host: I’m curious as to what the screening looks like. Is it some sort of x-ray or is it some sort of scan? Maybe talk a little bit about that.
Jean: It’s a CAT scan. So, it has a lower dose of radiation than other CAT scans. It’s an exam that takes less than five minutes. It’s for people that are nervous about, you know is it a tube? It’s not. It’s the one that looks like a donut and as I said, the scan itself takes less than five minutes. So, it’s very unobtrusive. There’s no IVs. There’s nothing else just they go in, they lay down, we do the scan, they are done.
Host: it seems very un-invasive. It doesn’t seem like people will really need to miss work or anything like that. They just schedule an appointment, come in and it’s done, right?
Jean: We do them here at Harrington seven days a week. And we do them from seven in the morning till seven at night. So, we are definitely working to meet the needs of our community and work around their work schedules and we try to be as flexible as we can to meet their needs and as I said, the exam itself takes five minutes so, paperwork and all they are usually here 15 minutes.
Host: Yeah, you mentioned that it’s a low dose of radiation. But just to alleviate people’s concerns, are there any risks associated with this scan at all?
Jean: There are no risks with the CT at all. None.
Host: So, let’s say you are a person that falls into the criteria that you mentioned; how often should they be getting screened?
Jean: So, it’s an annual screening. The program recommends annual screening for at least three years. if there is something that’s determined, is questionable, we may ask you to come back in three months or six months to look at that further and then if that all turns our fine; then we go back to annual screening. If we do see something, we may recommend additional diagnostic testing or consult with a pulmonologist. We also on these scans, have found quite a few what we call incidental findings meaning that when we are looking at the lungs, we see other parts of the body so we see things maybe in the thyroid or the breast or other parts of the body and we’ve actually found some significant findings that we’ve then gone on to be able to help the person have early detection and with early screening, early detection, the prognosis is always good.
Host: Yeah, I think one thing that’s really important to understand is that for a lot of lung cancer, the symptoms don’t express themselves oftentimes until it’s too late. So, for the people listening, it’s really important to be proactive and to get that annual screening done if you are over the age of 55 and you have smoked a pack a day for 30 years. and certainly, if you are still smoking, it’s really important to get that done. Wouldn’t you say that’s correct?
Jean: That is correct. And just to inform the public, 65% of the patients that we have found that have positive cancer findings have been stage one which is very treatable and has an excellent prognosis. So, that’s another reason to encourage people to come early even though they are scared and what happens a lot is people feel they are afraid. The word cancer scares people. And they are afraid and what they need to recognize is that if we find it early and treat it early; the prognosis is usually very good.
Host: Yeah, that sounds really good. And just to get a sense, what does stage one treatment look like?
Jean: Well oftentimes, it’s just s simple OR procedure where they surgically remove that piece of the lung and depending on what they find, very often they don’t need further treatment, meaning they don’t need chemotherapy or radiation but if they do, we certainly offer that here through our cancer center. The people with stage one as I said, very often don’t require further treatment other than the surgical procedure and then of course, we follow them very closely to make sure that nothing else is going on, or there isn’t further disease developing later on. So, we follow them extremely closely after that.
Host: So, I’m curious as to any advice that you might have for someone that potentially has a loved one that has smoked for a while, maybe it’s their father or their grandfather or grandmother, but just doesn’t want to get screened for whatever reason. Do you have any tips or tricks for getting them to come in?
Jean: Well, it’s not a trick, it’s just that I try to talk to them reasonably and what happens a lot with smokers is they almost have a guilt factor that they feel like they did this to themselves because they willingly smoked. And so, they kind of shut down about it and I try to explain to them this is absolutely a no blame society. We are not looking to blame you for causing yourself this problem. We are here to help you. And if we can detect what’s going on with you early, and I encourage them to know that we are not going to make any judgments on them. We just want to help them to make sure that they’re healthy. And again, reiterate to them that there’s no cost. That it is covered by the majority of insurances. There is only one I think that doesn’t cover it. And that the test takes less than 15 minutes and they will be out of here. So, it doesn’t interrupt their day very much. We get the results to them within – I send them a result letter within 24 to 48 hours so, they have an idea of what’s going on. And we are working very closely with their primary care providers to help them to make the right decision for them.
Host: Yeah, it really does seem so easy, painless and quick. So, there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t do this. So, just in wrapping up here, is there anything else that you want our audience to know about the lung screening program?
Jean: That we are here for them. We offer screenings here in South Bridge and in Webster at our Webster campus. As I said, we do them in South Bridge seven days a week. We do them in Webster Monday through Friday. We will be as flexible as possible for them. If they are interested, they can call me directly and I can call their primary care. We do require an order from the physician. But I often have patients call me directly and I will contact their physician for them. I will set it up. I will make sure that we get the insurance approval all done and then work with them to make the time convenient for them.
Host: Perfect. Well I really appreciate your time and insight today Jean. That’s Jean Comeau, an Interventional Radiology Nurse and Nurse Navigator of the Lung Screening Program at Harrington Hospital. Thanks for checking out this episode of Healthy Takeout. Head to www.harringtonhospital.org and search lung cancer screening for more information about this topic. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. Thanks and we’ll talk next time.