Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the state of Texas. Screening eligible persons who currently smoke or smoked in the past is the only proven effective strategy for detecting lung cancer. Screening has the potential to identify lung cancers early, when the chance for cure is greatest. To be effective, lung cancer screening needs to be performed annually. Currently, less than 1 in 10 individuals who are eligible for lung cancer screening have been screened, and only 1 in 5 screened previously are up-to-date with annual screening. Patients are reluctant to return for health care services because of the pandemic, and they need additional reassurance and outreach that screenin...

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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the state of Texas. Screening eligible persons who currently smoke or smoked in the past is the only proven effective strategy for detecting lung cancer. Screening has the potential to identify lung cancers early, when the chance for cure is greatest. To be effective, lung cancer screening needs to be performed annually. Currently, less than 1 in 10 individuals who are eligible for lung cancer screening have been screened, and only 1 in 5 screened previously are up-to-date with annual screening. Patients are reluctant to return for health care services because of the pandemic, and they need additional reassurance and outreach that screening is safe. We will test several strategies to increase initial and annual screening for lung cancer, including reminders that contain a person's individual risk of developing lung cancer, and contact from a navigator at the screening program to help patients make an appointment for their next annual screening and address barriers to screening. In addition, we will determine which combinations of strategies are most effective and require the fewest resources to be successful. This project represents a collaboration between lung cancer screening programs at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Tyler, The University of Texas Medical Branch, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and includes 21 screening sites. In the long-term, we expect to provide lung cancer screening programs across the state with guidance on how to best use their resources to help patients complete lung cancer screening.

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