SPECIAL TO THE DAILY RECORD
Those at risk for developing lung cancer may be able to breathe a bit easier, thanks to a study being conducted at the Carol G. Simon Cancer Center at Morristown Memorial Hospital and Overlook Hospital in Summit.
The International Early Lung Cancer Action Program is a worldwide research project that screens patients at high risk for the disease using computerized axial tomograms, also known as CT or CAT scans. The goal is to detect the cancer in its earliest stage, when it is highly curable through treatment.
Lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in men and women, according to Dr. Mark Widmann, surgical director of the lung cancer program at the Carol G. Simon Cancer Center at both hospitals. One reason for this is that when lung cancer is in its infancy, it's asymptomatic. Once people experience symptoms, such as a persistent cough or trouble breathing, the cancer most likely has progressed.
Another reason is that the traditional chest X-ray screening used for many patients isn't sensitive enough to pick up about three quarters of nodules on the lungs that are potentially malignant.
"Among the people diagnosed for lung cancer in this country, probably 85 percent have advanced disease," Widmann says. "We're not curing these patients — we're extending their lives."
He adds that when the cancer is found at an early stage, "the patient has upwards of an 85 or potentially even 90 percent cure rate."
In the Morristown Memorial study, high-risk lung cancer subjects are defined as women and men over age 40 with a 10-pack year history — smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years or two packs a day for five years — and those over 40 with significant exposure to second-hand smoke or other carcinogens.
The participants are screened via a low-dose spiral CT scan, a non-invasive, painless procedure that takes about 10 minutes.
"The initial trial of this study was done at Weill Cornell Medical College, and the results, published in 1999, showed that a CT scan picked up four times as many tumors as opposed to a chest X-ray," Widmann says. "Not all of the tumors turned out to be cancerous, but of the ones that were, about 85 percent of them were Stage 1."
Sharyn Finno Auzinger of Hillsborough, a 40-year-old mother of two, qualified for the Morristown study based on the fact that she had significant second-hand cigarette smoke inhalation, having grown up with two parents who smoked.
"My father is a 6 1/2-year lung cancer survivor who was fortunate enough to have his cancer detected early," she says. "As a lifetime smoker, he had taken it upon himself to ask his general practitioner for a CT scan, and that resulted in his diagnosis."
After two surgeries at Morristown Memorial performed by Dr. Widmann, Auzinger's father, 72, is now playing tennis four times a week.
"My mother was diagnosed with a later stage of lung cancer almost four years ago and still goes for chemotherapy treatments," Auzinger says. "And both my father and mother's moms died from the disease, and my father's sister is currently Stage 4."
Auzinger registered for the study, thinking it was a great opportunity for her to get a baseline reading. Her CT scan this past winter resulted in benign findings. Per the study's procedures, she'll return for an additional scan a year from when hers first took place.
"I feel it's important to do anything I can to further lung cancer research," she says. "I think there needs to be more done, and I'm willing to help. It's a crazy situation to have so many of my family members with the disease."
Although the intent of the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program study is to detect early-stage lung cancer, Widmann notes that Morristown Memorial participants who are found to have malignancies aren't simply told to figure out a solution on their own.
"At Carol G. Simon, we have a state-of-the-art lung cancer treatment program we can offer them," he says. "We're really the statewide leader in doing minimally invasive operations using video-assisted thoracic surgery, a technique that involves putting a camera in the patient's chest and working through little incisions. In addition, we have stereotactic targeted radiation therapy for people who may have limited lung function or aren't candidates for surgery.
"Although we also have a well-developed cancer center for patients with advanced disease, our hope is to now identify people at earlier stages who are more curable and then offer them, if needed, the latest technical and therapeutic advances," he says.
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