Creating Screening Opportunities Pt. 1: Leveraging the Breast

Our fourth installment of the “Expanding Horizons" series is part one of a two-part discussion on creating screening opportunities. In part one, discover how lung screening can draw from the success of mammography in promoting early detection and improving outcomes for lung cancer patients.

Meet our conversation leaders: Kim Sandler, MD, is an Associate Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, specializing in Cardiothoracic Imaging. Dr. Sandler serves as the Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Lung Screening Program, with a primary research focus on improving lung screening outreach, particularly among women and underrepresented minorities. Her work aims to enhance the ability to differentiate benign and malignant lung nodules using CT imaging and includes identifying high-risk women engaged in breast cancer screening to encourage their enrollment in the lung screening program.

Leah Backhus, MD, trained in general surgery at the University of Southern California and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of California Los Angeles. She practices at Stanford Hospital and is Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the VA Palo Alto. She is also Co-Director of the Thoracic Surgery Clinical Research Program and has grant funding through the Veterans Affairs Administration and NIH. Her current research interests are in imaging surveillance following treatment for lung cancer and cancer survivorship.

Additional information on this episode’s topic and guests, as well as the resources mentioned during the episode, can be found at https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Lung-Cancer-Screening-Resources.

Access the recordings of the 2022 webinar series that inspired this podcast series at https://pages.acr.org/NLCRT_Accelerating_Screening_Uptake.html.