Lung cancer care has evolved significantly
in the last few years.
Just in the last year,
we've had over eight new FDA approvals
for lung cancer patients.
But it's great for the patients
to have so many treatment options.
So we know the time to treatment really does matter
for lung cancer patients.
Our lung cancer team is with you
and your family right from day one.
From the moment you walk into our hospital,
or the moment you make contact virtually
or over the phone with our hospital
or with our team members, we are there for you
and we will help guide you
and navigate you through the journey.
Lung cancer screening saves lives.
With a simple low-dose CT scan,
performed annually on patients at risk,
that is people that have had a history of smoking,
we're able to find early-stage patients
who are asymptomatic, have no idea that they have
a tumor in them.
And usually when the tumor is small and localized,
we're able to provide curative surgery
and their outlook is far greater than if we waited
and they presented with symptoms down the road.
Rush's lung cancer program
is one of the busiest in Chicago and in the Midwest.
We are one of very few centers that are designated
as a Society of Thoracic Surgeons three-star program.
There's only 12 centers across the country —
that's the highest rating that is given by our society,
the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
We do approximately 75% to 80% of our lung resections
in a minimally invasive fashion.
And we do about 500 lung resections per year here at Rush.
We operate on the most patients with lung problems
in the state of Illinois.
Our outcomes have been nationally recognized
and are at the top of our field.
We are able to, with our experience
and our team of surgeons and staff,
to take care of patients from the whole spectrum
of lung cancers and diseases.
We operate on early-stage disease
using minimally invasive techniques,
sending patients home often the next day
to also complex procedures that are referred to us
from other states because of our expertise
in taking care of these complex patients.
At Rush we have
a well-established thoracic oncology clinic and conference.
We meet every Thursday.
We present all new lung cancer patients coming that day,
discuss their oncological history.
We review their imaging studies, such as CT scans and MRIs.
We review their pathology reports and slides,
and we discuss a treatment plan.
Right after the conference, we see patients
as a group of doctors.
So a patient may see three or four subspecialists
to personalize the treatment plan for each patient.
Every patient that comes through Rush
is also evaluated for a clinical trial participation.
We have a number of clinical trials available
in lung cancer at Rush ranging
from chemotherapy-focused trials to surgical trials.
We believe that allowing patients access to clinical trials
and innovative treatments,
not only from a medical standpoint,
but from a surgical standpoint,
gives us the best opportunity
to not only push the field of lung cancer forward,
but to also give them the best care possible.
Lung cancer is now being treated as a chronic disease
in many cases.
We have patients who are five or 10 years out
from their diagnosis of lung cancer
and our multidisciplinary team at Rush here continues
to identify if that cancer recurs, the best way to treat it,
and then give that patient more time.
Immunotherapy has revolutionized some of the outcomes
for these patients with advanced disease
in that in the past, chemotherapy when it worked only
in a small fraction of patients,
we have now immunotherapy techniques
that can often have dramatic results
and longstanding results.
Being able to help them go through their journey
is truly rewarding as a physician.
And knowing that my care team —
the lung cancer care team — all feels that way
and all practices that way makes coming to work even better.
And having that shared philosophy
that we all really look at our patients
as the center of our attention at all times,
I think that speaks to the team philosophy
that we have at Rush.