Roswell Park Experts Launch Comprehensive Lung Cancer Screening List for New York State

Mary Reid, PhD

In an effort to improve access to lung cancer screening across New York State, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center experts have launched a comprehensive online provider registry, available at nylungcancerscreening.com, that is now live and accessible to the public.

Roswell Park Chief of Screening, Survivorship and Mentorship Mary Reid, PhD, alongside a team of passionate advocates and the NY State Cancer Consortium’s Lung Cancer Screening Action Team (NYSLCSAT), spent the last two years compiling the list of nearly 400 locations offering lung cancer screening as well as confirming services, contact information and more.

Sponsored through a corporate membership with biotechnology company Genentech — a member of the Roche Group — and NYSLCSAT, the website is the most comprehensive resource of its kind for New York State. It allows visitors to search for lung cancer screening facilities based on ZIP code, with results sorted by distance. Listings also include contact information for scheduling teams as well as directions to help guide people to each facility.

“Open access and transparency are key for successful cancer screening outreach,” explains Roswell Park research scientist Christina Crabtree-Ide, PhD. “With this new list, we break down online search barriers and give eligible New York residents the chance to look up screening providers right in their own backyard.”

Lung cancer is the second-most common cause of cancer in both men and women and is the nation’s leading cause of cancer deaths. Screening for the disease — utilizing a quick and painless low-dose CT scan — can help detect it at earlier stages and save lives. In New York State, only 6% of eligible people have been screened for lung cancer. And while access barriers persist in both urban and rural communities, Roswell Park analysis shows that more than 36% of New York State residents living in counties with the highest rates of lung cancer deaths must drive at least an hour to get a low-dose CT scan.

“Through this registry and continued efforts like our Eddy mobile CT unit, we hope to close the health inequity gap and make it easier for folks to get the care they need and deserve,” says Dr Reid, who has pioneered Roswell Park’s screening efforts across two decades of research and advocacy.

“We anticipate the website to continually be updated with new locations as information becomes available,” says Roswell Park researcher Whitney Mendel, PhD, who also helped develop the new resource. “We are thankful to work with Genentech in our efforts to reach and educate all New Yorkers on the importance of this life-saving screening.”