Can Telemedicine Lung Cancer Screening Expand Access to Screening?
Posted: Friday, November 12, 2021
The use of telemedicine lung cancer screening may prove to be as effective as single-visit in-person screenings, potentially representing an alternative, effective screening tool for more patients, according to a study presented at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Virtual Clinical Congress 2021. The success of this virtual screening initiative may be the first step in implementing such virtual screenings for other types of cancer, explained Jessica S. Magarinos, MD, of Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, and colleagues.
“Overall, we do a sorrowful job of getting people to undergo lung cancer screening,” said principal investigator of the study, Cherie P. Erkmen, MD, FACS, in an ACS press release. “We can reduce preventable lung cancer death by finding novel ways of getting people screened.”
A total of 1,113 patients were recruited for the study and underwent lung cancer screening. The screening was performed either via single-visit screening before the pandemic (n = 673) or via single encounter telemedicine lung cancer screening after the pandemic (n = 440). A total of 52% screened before the pandemic and 33% of patients screened after the pandemic was Black.
The study findings did not reveal any significant differences regarding the efficacy of single-visit versus telemedicine screening in the distribution of lung imaging reporting and data system (Lung-RADS) results for single-visit and telemedicine lung cancer screening protocols, respectively: Lung-RADS1—46.4% vs. 37.0%; Lung-RADS2—44.0% vs. 50.8%; Lung-RADS3—5.30% vs. 7.60%; Lung-RADS4—4.20% vs. 4.80%; and Lung-RADS0—0.10% vs. 0.20%. Furthermore, the authors did not identify any significant differences in the frequency of procedures for cancer diagnoses.
In addition, Dr. Magarinos commented about the potential reach of such virtual screening in an ACS press release. “African Americans face disparities in care, especially for lung cancer. Our study shows that telemedicine screenings were able to reach the African American population in a safety net hospital.”
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
