U-M lung cancer researcher part of team honored for early detection guideline

ANN ARBOR, MI – A University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center doctor is part of a team that was awarded the Michigan Cancer Consortium’s highest honor. The Lung Cancer Early Detection Workgroup, which Gregory Kalemkerian, M.D., co-chaired, received the MCC Spirit of Collaboration Award.

Dr. KalemkerianKalemkerian’s group produced a position statement for Michigan health care providers in the public and private sectors about lung cancer detection, an issue that has created significant controversy in the field today. The statement recommends that health care providers not use a certain type of screening technique, called the low-dose spiral CT scan, for screening patients who show no symptoms of lung cancer. Current studies have not clearly demonstrated the potential benefits of this procedure. Instead, the group encourages the individual evaluation of patients according to their risk until research shows that spiral CT scans save lives.

“Our statement will help physicians address their patients’ concerns regarding an area of medicine where the available information is inconclusive and controversial,” says Kalemkerian, director of the Multidisciplinary Lung Cancer Clinic at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The MCC is a statewide organization that coordinates the efforts of various researchers, doctors and health care providers to produce position statements aimed at reducing the rates of particular types of cancer in the state.

Since 2001, the Spirit of Collaboration Award has been given to MCC member organizations that have produced superior and collaborative work to push forth significant cancer control policies and activities in the state of Michigan. The award was presented during the organization’s annual meeting in Lansing on Oct. 31.

“This award has special meaning to me. It took a lot of work to get a group of people with very divergent interests to agree on a statement that is practical and useful to health care providers and their patients,” Kalemkerian says.

For more information about the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, visit mcancer.org. For more information about the award, see michigancancer.org.

Written by Milly Dick