There is a test that could diminish the toll of the nation’s top cancer killer—if people would use it. Doctors are pushing harder to make that happen....

... St. Elizabeth Healthcare in northern Kentucky, where Courtney is a patient, was screening around 700 patients a month in 2022, up from seven in all of 2013, when a U.S. government-backed panel first recommended the test. More than two-thirds of lung cancers the scans identified at St. Elizabeth in 2022 were in the earliest stage. 

Dr. Michael Gieske hadn’t heard of the test before St. Elizabeth assigned him in 2016 to encourage more eligible people to get it. He started writing thank-you notes to doctors who got their patients scanned and helped implement software that identifies eligible patients based on their medical records. He climbed Mount Everest with a large white ribbon fashioned from wood, inspired by the pink ribbon for breast-cancer awareness, to spread the word. 

“I’ve seen a lot of lung cancer, and I’ve found for the first time, there was really something that can make a difference,” Gieske said....

Read More at WSJ.com