'Help is right here': Roswell Park brings lung cancer screening to people who need it

Feb. 19—Cecil Wilson had his first cigarette with his friends when he was a teenager.

That first puff led to a habit of smoking at least a pack a day for the next six decades. At age 71, he still smokes periodically.

But recently, he began experiencing a shortness of breath. When his local church told him about an opportunity to get a free lung screening without leaving his neighborhood, the East Side resident volunteered.

Although that first experience was nerve-wracking, he has been a regular since then.

"Whenever they want me to do it, I'll do it," he said.

Wilson has benefited from a Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center mobile lung cancer screening unit called, EDDY, which stands for Early Detection Driven to You. The service is aimed at making lung cancer screening more accessible to those in underserved, high-risk neighborhoods.

Wilson was delighted and relieved to learn that he did not have any respiratory problems that required further treatment. And since the mobile van ventures into the neighborhoods, Wilson said he thinks that it helps increase interest and awareness.

Mary Reid thinks he is right.

"Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer," said Reid, Roswell's chief of cancer screening, survivorship and mentorship. "It kills more people than all the other major cancers combined, and it doesn't have to be that way."

Reid has worked to pioneer the Center's Lung Cancer Screening program and other cancer screening initiatives within the Institute and in several other Western New York communities.

Eligible candidates must be at least 50 with about 20 or more years of smoking history to be screened. As per Roswell's research, only 4.9% of eligible people are screened in New York state. With proper screening, an estimated $31 million can be saved annually from the health care costs that come from treating advanced lung cancer.

More than 70% of lung cancers are diagnosed at later stages, when it is almost incurable, Reid said.

The screening test involves a low-dose CT scan that can help detect lesions, nodules and other early precursors to cancer, lowering mortality rates.

Insurance companies, including Medicaid, are required to cover this scan, Reid said.

Among other East Side neighborhoods, EDDY occasionally sets up shop at True Bethel Baptist Church, where pastor Darius Pridgen is a supporter who encourages eligible members to get screened. That is where Wilson found them.

Without Roswell's mobile screening van, Wilson's lungs might have gone unchecked for years.

"I can't complain. I am doing better than I used to. And I don't smoke as much as I used to," he said.

Wilson has begun spreading the word among friends and family to encourage them to come out and get screened.

His message is a simple one: "It can only help, it can't hurt."

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