Cancer Society awards $719K grant to Miriam

WARWICK – The American Cancer Society, the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the United States, has approved funding of a grant totaling $719,000 to Sandra Japuntich, PhD, a researcher at The Miriam Hospital in Providence. This grant is among 110 national research and training grants totaling more than $47.6 million that will fund investigators at 72 institutions across the United States beginning July 1, 2018.

Japuntich’s study, “Lung Cancer Screening Following the Affordable Care Act” will focus on the consistency and prevalence of lung cancer screenings since 2015, when the Affordable Care Act required cancer screenings to be covered by insurance.

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer, but the most common cause of cancer death. It is particularly deadly because patients do not experience symptoms until the late stages of the disease, when it is difficult to treat. To identify lung tumors sooner, doctors can use an imaging test, called a low-dose CT scan, to screen current and former smokers for lung cancer. Current and recent former smokers who receive this test annually can reduce their chance of lung cancer death by 20 percent.

This study will begin by asking patients from Lifespan and Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis whether they received a lung cancer screening and what factors influenced their decision to be screened. Patients who have been screened will then be asked about their experience and decision to continue with the annual screening protocol. In addition, providers will be asked if they recommend lung cancer screenings to patients and what factors they use to decide on making that recommendation.

The results of this research will help to understand whether new advocacy approaches are needed to increase lung cancer screening and where to target this advocacy. The long-term goal is to clarify what prevents patients and providers from engaging in screening.

Since 1946, the American Cancer Society has funded research and training of health professionals to investigate the causes, prevention, and early detection of cancer, as well as new treatments, cancer survivorship, and end of life support for patients and their families. In those 71 years, the American Cancer Society’s extramural research grants program has devoted more than $4.6 billion to cancer research and is honored to have given funding to 47 investigators who went on to win the Nobel Prize.

For more information about the American Cancer Society Research Program, please visit http://www.cancer.org/research.