One of a Kind People Powered CT Donation Program For Lung Cancer Research Expands

Lung Cancer Alliance and Siemens Healthcare Expand Give A Scan Program to Help Patients Accelerate Research

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) and Siemens Healthcare announce the national expansion of Give A Scan, the first CT donation program that allows people to donate directly to lung cancer research, by asking patients and their loved ones to Give A Scan. This program allows lung cancer patients and the people who love them, as well as those at risk, to donate their computed tomography (CT) scans along with any information they are willing to give about family cancer history, smoking history, exposure to other cancer-causing agents and treatment regimens.

"There is no other resource like this," said Lung Cancer Alliance President and CEO Laurie Fenton Ambrose. "It is a landmark development in our people-powered war on lung cancer that will advance research while empowering our community. Those who participate will be helping save lives."

The donated CT scans are stripped of personal identifiers and then put on the Give a Scan website along with the donated clinical data in open access and at no charge to researchers around the world. The goal is to allow people to directly impact research and speed up the development of more effective diagnostic tools and treatments – the types of tools that can contribute to improvements in lung cancer survival rates.^1,2

"With all the innovative treatments developed over the last two decades, lung cancer's survival rates are still only 16% - a mere 3% above where it was almost 40 years ago when the "War on Cancer" was launched," said Greg Sorensen, MD, CEO of Siemens Healthcare.  "If deployed properly – a CT scan – has the potential to decrease lung cancer death rates by at least 20 percent, which is four times more than all other surgery and therapies to combat lung cancer combined."

LCA developed the program in response to repeated requests by the research community for the critically important combination of images and clinical history. As the program expands nationally, Siemens Healthcare, Malvern, Pa., is proud to sponsor this unique approach which is aimed at educating patients and supporting researchers as they use medical imaging to advance the understanding of lung cancer.

By having access to images and clinical histories researchers can better zero in on all aspects of lung cancer: precancerous conditions, risk assessment, diagnosis and treatment.

"We carried out three pilot runs on the program to date and feel confident that Give A Scan will lead not only to rapid refinements in imaging but also to more effective integration of imaging and the biomedical research," Fenton Ambrose said. "Lung cancer needs both, and we are grateful that Siemens Healthcare will be helping us to take this program national and to Kitware, Inc. for their help in the development and maintenance of the program."

Despite lung cancer taking more lives than breast, prostate, colon and pancreatic cancers combined, little more than one out of every 10 of the combined federal research dollars is spent on lung cancer research. Give A Scan provides a solution for the lack of dollars by giving the research community the data they require while leveraging the commitment and determination of patients and their families to improve outcomes.

Give a Scan is proudly sponsored by Siemens Healthcare and with the assistance of Kitware, Inc.  making the program available without charge to researchers around the world.

1. Howlader N, Noone AM, Krapcho M, Neyman N, Aminou R, Waldron W, Altekruse SF, Kosary CL, Ruhl J, Tatalovich Z, Cho H, Mariotto A, Eisner MP, Lewis DR, Chen HS, Feuer EJ, Cronin KA, Edwards BK (eds). SEER Cancer Statistics – Review, 1975-2008, National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD, http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2008/, based on November 2010 SEER data submission, posted to the SEER web site, 2011.

2. National Lung Screening Trial Research Team, et al (2011). Reduced lung-cancer mortality
with low-dose computed tomographic screening. N Engl J Med, 365:395-409.

About Lung Cancer Alliance:
Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) is committed to saving lives by helping people, building our community and advancing screening and research. LCA provides live, professional support, referral and information services to patients, their loved ones and those at risk for lung cancer; advocates for increased research funding having secured  historic legislation and close to $70 million to date in public health research dollars; and conducts nationwide education campaigns on lung cancer and most recently on risk and screening (www.atriskforlungcancer.org) directing the at risk public to facilities that adopt LCA's  National Framework for Excellence in Lung Cancer Screening and Continuum of Care.  More than 130 centers are following these best practices for responsible screening and care, with an additional 90 sites in the pipeline for inclusion in the network.

About Siemens Healthcare:
The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2012 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 13.6 billion euros and profit of around 1.8 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.

About Lung Cancer:
Lung cancer is the leading killer in the United States, taking more lives than breast, prostate, colon and pancreatic cancers combined. Each year, 160,000 lives are lost to lung cancer. Only 15 percent of people diagnosed with lung cancer will survive it. This is primarily because today the vast majority of lung cancers are diagnosed at a late stage. Only 15 percent of lung cancer diagnoses happen in the early stages.

Media Contact: Kay Cofrancesco, 302-521-5716, [email protected]

SOURCE Lung Cancer Alliance