New S.F. cancer program targets ‘growing and under-recognized’ disease in women
Jennifer Morrice, left, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer at age 45 despite never having smoked, is pictured in 2024 with Dr. Heba Ismail, the Sutter CPMC pulmonary specialist who treated her and now leads a program pairing lung cancer screening with mammogram visits.
TL;DR
- A new program, GLAMS, at Sutter Health's CPMC in San Francisco offers lung cancer screening to women during mammogram appointments.
- The program targets the rise of lung cancer in non-smoking women, a group disproportionately affected and often asymptomatic.
- Current lung cancer screening guidelines primarily focus on smokers and may not adequately address the growing number of non-smoker cases, particularly in women.
- GLAMS aims to identify risk factors such as genetics (e.g., EGFR, ALK gene mutations) and environmental exposures (secondhand smoke, radon, asbestos, wood-fire smoke) in non-smoking women.
- The screening program will expand in phases, initially offering screenings to women who meet current guidelines, and later to those with identified risk factors, funded by donations for those outside current guidelines.
- Jennifer Morrice, a non-smoker diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer, is an advocate for the program after her own experience and successful treatment.