IU Health, Simon Cancer Center receives $4.5M for mobile lung cancer screening
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
More Hoosiers around the state will soon be able to be screened for lung cancer thanks to a $4.5 million gift to Indiana University Health and the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center to support a mobile screening program.
The hospital system says it will provide matching funds to the Tom and Julie Wood Family Foundation gift, funneling $8.5 million toward the initiative.
The goal of the gift is to both improve patient care through the program and enhance research efforts.
The first patient will be screened through the new program in 2025. The funding will support the build-out of the mobile CT scanner unit and the first year of patient care resources, staffing, operating and marketing expenses. The unit will especially help those in rural areas.
“Lung cancer screening unequivocally saves lives by catching it in its earliest and most treatable stages,” said Nasser Hanna, a lung cancer clinical research professor at the IU School of Medicine and an IU Health lung cancer physician, in a news release. “All of us at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and IU Health know how valuable these painless and safe imaging tests will be for those at risk of lung cancer–especially those who face barriers to accessing such screenings.”
Lung cancer is the leading fatal cancer, and early screenings can decrease the mortality rate by 20%.
A recent report from the American Lung Association found that Indiana ranks 24th in the nation for lung cancer screenings, with a screening rate of 5.1%.