On Friday, April 20, to Sunday, April 22, Weill Cornell Medical College hosted the 16th International Conference on Screening for Lung Cancer, an event sponsored by the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP).
I-ELCAP is led by principal investigator Dr. Claudia Henschke, professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College. The Weill Cornell Lung CT Screening Program is the coordinating site of I-ELCAP, which now includes 44 screening sites in 12 states and eight countries. "Exciting progress is being made in screening and treatment research" said Dr. Claudia Henschke. "Screening using the I-ELCAP protocol which defines the workup algorithm is expanding."
Dr. David Yankelevitz, professor of radiology and cardiothoracic surgery and co-director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.
The three-day conference focused on research related to screening for cancer and the recent criticisms of the I-ELCAP approach. Specific conference topics included cancer biomarkers, innovations in CT scanning, inflammation as a pathway between cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and secondary risk factors, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
A secondary focus was on information that becomes available as a byproduct of CT screening concerning emphysema, coronary artery calcifications, and non-imaging biomarkers that are useful for diagnostic and prognostic purposes.
I-ELCAP was initially formed in 1992 by a group of physicians from Weill Cornell who joined forces with specialists from other institutions with the common research goal of early lung cancer detection, and the promise offered by helical CT imaging. The organization made international news in October 2006 with a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finding that lung cancer survival rates dramatically improve with annual CT screening and prompt treatment; since then CT screening for lung cancer has become a significant topic of discussion in both academic medicine and the media.
Photography by Amelia Panico.