Assessing lung cancer screening in the Jefferson Health Northeast system.

Abstract

378 Background: Despite early diagnosis of lung cancer with annual low-dose CT scans for high-risk patients, the 2022 screening rate in Pennsylvania is 9% which is slightly better than the national average of 6%. This study assesses lung cancer screening in the Jefferson Health Northeast (JNE) system compared to the Pennsylvania state average and identifies possible areas of improvement. Methods: This is a retrospective study of 1701 lung cancer screened patients from January to December 2022 within the JNE system. Screening results in each hospital were compared with one another. Age, race, and smoking history were assessed in patients with a positive screen, defined as Lung-RADS score of 4. The results were compared to the 2022 Pennsylvania state lung cancer screening rates. Results: Of 1701 patients screened, 52.7 % were female and 47.3% were male. The majority of these patients were Caucasian (87.2%) then African American (6.0%), Hispanic (1.9%), and Asian (0.8%). Among the screened patients, 56.4% were current smokers while 43.6% were former smokers. 131 patients screened positive. 23 new cases were confirmed. Of these 1.9% and 1.2% were African Americans and Caucasians respectively; 56.5% and 34.8% were current and former smokers respectively; 56.5% were female and 34.8% were male. The majority of cases were adenocarcinoma (43.5%) and squamous cell carcinoma (39.1%). Even though Bucks Hospital had the highest positive screening rate (8.2%), Torresdale Hospital documented the majority of new cases (60.9%). Conclusions: Within the JNE population, early diagnosis of lung cancer through screening remains challenging. Here we demonstrated that despite 7.7% of patients had a positive screen, only 1.4% of all patients screened were confirmed to have lung cancer. Data for positively screened patients did not ascertain successful follow-up. We suggest including the Lung-RADS score within the patient’s chart. Familiarizing healthcare providers with this will improve lung cancer detection in high-risk patients.