A first-of-its-kind collaboration in Kentucky is aimed at detecting lung cancer earlier and increasing survivorship rates.
The $7 million effort announced Wednesday in Frankfort is being funded through a grant made by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.
The effort is called the Kentucky LEADS Collaborative, and is a joint effort between the Universities of Louisville and Kentucky, and the Lung Cancer Alliance. Lung cancer takes an especially heavy toll in the commonwealth, as the state leads the nation in the number of lung cancer cases.
The collaboration will bring together health experts tasked with creating new ways to detect lung cancer at earlier stages in order to increase survivorship. Another goal is to improve the quality of life of lung cancer patients and their caregivers.
The first component of the program will review patterns and practices surrounding the ways Kentucky’s primary care providers refer and treat lung cancer patients. In announcing the project, Governor Beshear noted it dovetails with his administration’s goal of reducing the state’s cancer and smoking rates by 10 percent by 2019.
Nationwide, lung cancer kills more Americans than breast, prostate, and colon cancers combined.
