The B.C. Lung Screen Trial at Vancouver General Hospital is currently recruiting 2,000 individuals from the Lower Mainland who are between 55 and 80 years of age, with at least a 30-pack-years smoking history to take part in a new lung cancer research project. The study is jointly funded by the VGH-UBC Hospital Foundation, the BC Cancer Foundation, and the Terry Fox Research Institute.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women, and less than 18% of patients survive five years or more. However if lung cancer is diagnosed early (through screening) and treated early before it spreads outside the air passages, over 77% of patients survive five years or more. Low dose computed tomography, often simply called "CT scan", can pick out tiny cancers that are not visible by previous tests.
Ottawa resident Debi Lascelle took part in the Terry Fox Research Institute study, and credits the early-detection protocol with catching her cancer while it was still curable.
“Being involved in this study quite literally saved my life,” said Lascelle, who had a 13-milimetre tumour removed from her right lung through surgery and has been cancer-free ever since. “How do you adequately find a way to say, ‘Thank you for my life’? It’s been seven years and I still haven’t found a way.”
The B.C. Lung Screen Trial, a study led by Dr. Stephen Lam (Respiratory Medicine), Dr. John Yee (Thoracic Surgery) and Dr. John Mayo (Radiology) at the Vancouver General Hospital in association with the B.C. Cancer Agency, aims to improve lung cancer survival rates by using early detection low dose CT scanning which has been shown to reduce lung cancer mortality by 20% in a larger randomized clinical trial.
Interested in taking part? Check out the study website or contact:
Website: Bclungscreentrial.com
Email: bclungscreening2015@gmail.com
Telephone: 1-604-675-8088