This November, let’s stand up to lung cancer
Lung cancer is the number-one cancer killer in New York — by far. It kills New Yorkers at a rate 1.6 times what we see with breast cancer, 1.7 times higher than rates for prostate cancer and 2.4 times higher than rates for colorectal cancer.
What all those cancers have in common is that they can all be screened for. We have tools to detect them at early stages — a difference-maker when it comes to cancer survival.
So why are outcomes for people with lung cancer so much worse, overall, than those for people with other common cancers? What barriers might be preventing eligible New Yorkers from getting screened for lung cancer? How can providers, and state leaders help improve screening rates and save lives?
It is hard to overstate just how important lung cancer screening is in the fight against this most-deadly cancer type. Thousands of lives could be saved each year in New York State alone if more people are able to detect and treat their lung cancer at earlier stages.
Currently, uptake of lung cancer screening is shockingly low, with less than 20% of eligible New Yorkers — people identified at high risk of developing lung cancer — getting screened in 2024. This contributes to the high number of New Yorkers — approximately 9,700 residents every year or 70% all people diagnosed with lung cancer in the state — whose lung cancer reaches an advanced stage before it’s detected.
Next week, we will celebrate Lung Cancer Awareness Month. While health professionals like me are working to catch more cancers early through screening, we need policymakers to do their part by addressing the prohibitively high costs associated with the lung cancer screening process.
Many New Yorkers — even those with insurance — will not be able to complete the entire screening process without incurring out-of-pocket costs. Fees or co-pays can deter someone from pursuing potentially lifesaving care, putting New Yorkers with limited income at even greater risk of a poor health outcome.
As a state, we have prioritized screening for other cancers, while lung cancer screening is the only type of cancer screening for which patients can be required to pay out-of-pocket for follow-up screening or tests. The divergent mortality rates compared to other screenable cancers reflect that.
This is dumbfounding, wrenching and expensive. Investing in early detection saves patients, insurers and the state. It is 274% more expensive to treat lung cancer once it’s at an advanced stage. The state could save nearly $87 million every year by increasing the percentage of eligible residents who get screened from 10% to 50%.
We applaud Buffalo Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes for sponsoring legislation (Assembly Bill 1195a) to rectify this inequity hampering New York’s ability to care effectively for people from all corners and communities around the state. The bill along with its Senate counterpart (Senate Bill 2000a championed by Senator Joseph Addabbo of Queens) passed in the Legislature this summer.
It seeks to eliminate cost-sharing for lung cancer screenings and follow-up tests for all eligible New Yorkers insured through a state-regulated health plan.
Cancer survivors, patient advocates with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and medical and public health leaders across New York celebrated its passage. Now, we are looking forward to standing with Governor Hochul to promote lung cancer screening in November and enacting this bipartisan bill.
We can expect to see 12,500 New Yorkers diagnosed with lung cancer in 2025, a majority of whom are likely to die from their illness. Lung cancer needn’t be a death sentence, but it will persist as such for a majority of New Yorkers diagnosed with the disease if we do not intervene to eliminate the financial barriers to screening.
Together, we can ensure more people get screened for lung cancer and save more lives from the disease.
Mary Reid, BSN, MSPH, PhD
Chief of Cancer Screening and Survivorship
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (Buffalo, NY)
