Jerri Westby was 76 when she was diagnosed with Stage 1B lung cancer in June. She lost her life to the disease Oct. 22.
The diagnosis happened by chance, after her doctor spotted something on an image and ordered a chest X-ray. The X-ray, and subsequent tests, revealed a tumor on Jerri’s lung. Doctors had no idea how long it had been there but said the type of cancer was highly susceptible to quick metastasis.
They were right.
The Vancouver woman underwent surgery to remove the tumor, which doctors deemed successful. The cancer was gone. Her outlook was positive.
About six weeks later, after multiple trips to the emergency room for intolerable shoulder pain, a bone scan revealed Jerri’s lung cancer had metastasized and was now in her shoulder, her brain and had destroyed one of her ribs.
Surgery wasn’t an option. Jerri received a couple of radiation treatments to alleviate pain. She died two weeks later.
Jerri’s radiation oncologist, Dr. Michael Myers, and a team of PeaceHealth providers hope to reduce the number of families who experience the devastating results of the country’s leading cause of cancer deaths.
Next month, PeaceHealth Medical Group and PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center will roll out a comprehensive lung cancer screening program. The program is aimed at identifying, diagnosing and treating lung cancer earlier among a high-risk population.
“Had this screening program been in place, there’s a high degree of probability my wife would be here today,” said Hal Westby, Jerri’s husband of 55 years. “I believe that.”
Recommendations
Three years ago, researchers published a large, random study on lung cancer screening in the U.S. The National Lung Screening Trial compared the effectiveness of detecting lung cancer using two methods: traditional chest X-ray and low-dose CT scan. The study found a 20 percent reduction in lung cancer mortality among participants who received CT scans.
Armed with the promising results, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force — the same group that sets screening recommendations for breast, prostate, cervical and colorectal cancers — developed lung cancer screening recommendations that were published in December 2013.
The recommendations call for annual low-dose CT scans of the lungs of people who meet three criteria: they’re 55 to 74 years old; they smoke or smoked an average of one pack of cigarettes per day for 30 years; and they’ve smoked cigarettes within the last 15 years.
The low-dose CT scans have the same amount of radiation as a mammogram or the equivalent of about six months worth of radiation people are exposed to in their daily lives, said William Kuhle, a radiologist at PeaceHealth Southwest.
The recommendations also call on health providers to not only offer the scans but the necessary infrastructure to follow up with high-risk populations for continued screenings and treat people who are diagnosed with lung cancer.
After months of work, PeaceHealth Medical Group and PeaceHealth Southwest now have that infrastructure in place.
“It’s nice to have the whole program structured around the problem of lung cancer,” Kuhle said.
“People have been searching for an effective lung cancer screening method for decades,” he added.
Before the screening recommendations, lung cancer wasn’t identified until a patient presented cancer symptoms or the cancer was discovered during the course of another medical treatment or procedure, Myers said.
“We know if we catch it early, we can cure the patients,” he said. “The treatment is also not as aggressive.”
Stage 1 lung cancer has a five-year survival rate of about 75 percent, Myers said.
“Anything else is 50 percent, at best,” he said. “It’s dismal.”
The screening is not yet covered by Medicare or insurance companies. Medicare is expected to begin covering the screening soon, hopefully within the next year, Myers said. When that happens, insurance companies will likely follow suit, he said.
In the meantime, PeaceHealth will be offering the screening for about $100 to $150, the minimum cost to fund the program, Myers said. PeaceHealth Medical Group has also set aside money to cover the screening cost for patients who can’t afford it.
“I will do anything for my lung cancer patients,” Myers said.
‘It will save lives’
Had lung cancer screening been in place a few years ago, Jerri would have fit into the high-risk population recommended for screening. She started smoking when she was in college and quit 10 years before she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Hal believes screening would have detected Jerri’s tumor before it had progressed to the point of causing symptoms that had stumped doctors for more than a year. He recognizes the importance of PeaceHealth’s new lung cancer screening program and considers himself the program’s “self-appointed No. 1 cheerleader.”
“We are so grateful this program is getting off the ground,” Hal said of his family. “It will save lives.”
