ACCC recognizes August 1st as World Lung Cancer Day through its past Innovator Award winners.
Lung cancer was considered a rare disease when first identified by physicians in the early 19th century, but by the end of the 20th century, it had become the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in more than 25 countries. Currently, about 1 person is diagnosed with lung cancer every 2 minutes in the United States. More people in the US lose their lives to lung cancer than colon, prostate, and breast cancer combined, making it the deadliest cancer in the country.
Recognizing the disease landscape is important as August 1st marks World Lung Cancer Day. This year, ACCCBuzz is recognizing the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) members, who have recently received ACCC Innovator Awards for their pioneering work to improve the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of lung cancer.
The correlation between smoking and lung cancer is well documented. However, smoking rates remain high in many states. As of 2022, the adult smoking rate in Kentucky was 21.4% and high school tobacco usage sat at 29.7%. “Kentucky has a tremendous problem with tobacco abuse. We are probably one of the top 2 states for smoking rates,” said Michael Gieske, MD, medical director of Lung Cancer Screening at St. Elizabeth Health Care. “When I started practice 37 years ago, we had a smoking section in our waiting room and patients were in there smoking, the lead physician smoked, and a lot of the employees smoked.” According to Dr. Gieske, tobacco is woven into the fabric of the state’s culture and economy. “It is hard to separate that,” he explained. “We have been working hard for many years to unweave that, but it’s a challenge.”
Dr. Gieske is no stranger to undertaking challenging tasks. As an ardent hiker and backpacker, journeying to Mount Everest Base Camp was always on his bucket list. “It was a 9-day trek, 9,000 feet climbing elevation and that was really remarkable,” Dr. Gieske said. When he thought about turning back the perseverance of those battling lung cancer fueled his determination. That passion is epitomized in the center’s 2023 ACCC Innovator Award win, for a model that demonstrated sustainable outreach for cancer screening. The driving mission behind this initiative had a significant impact on their patient population as the proportion of late-stage (III/IV) lung cancer fell 23.1% between 2015 and 2022.
The largest contributor to the increase of the 5-year survival rate of patients with lung cancer in the US—from 21% in 2014 to 25% in 2018—is the use of novel biomarker targeted therapies in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer. The disease subtype represents 85% of all lung cancer diagnoses.
Understanding this, Oncology Hematology Care, Inc. (OHC) launched a 1-year quality improvement project that implemented and standardized comprehensive biomarker testing in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Custom data reports and monitoring dashboards ensured practice-wide adoption and sustainability across multiple clinic sites. After increasing biomarker testing rates from 68% to 92.7%, this project is now being scaled across the country through the US Oncology Network, McKesson as a best-practice initiative.
This initiative earned OHC a 2023 ACCC Innovator Award and Molly Mendenhall, RN, BSN, director of Quality and Compliance at OHC, believes it is a model that can benefit patients with lung cancer around the country. “The cool thing about this project is that it can be implemented at little to no cost,” she said. “There are things cancer programs and practices could do today to roll this program out tomorrow.”
The term “patient-centered care,” has become common in modern health care discourse. But for Maine Medical Center Cancer Institute, it is more than a word—it is a value they prioritize in their care delivery model. According to Theresa Roelke, MSN, RN, AGNP-C, geriatric nurse practitioner, Maine Medical Center Cancer Institute, when patients receive news of a lung nodule after screening, they are often distressed. “What I was finding is that patients look at their radiology report and it looks pretty scary because they don't understand it,” she explained. “They don't understand the medical language, and they're at a loss.”
To help improve patient understanding before a possible diagnosis, Roelke partnered with an art student from Maine College of Art to design and implement a 3D model to illustrate to patients what a lung nodule resembles. “This tool is meant to educate patients before they even see their imaging report,” Roelke said.
Data showed that using this type of 3D educational tool facilitates high quality communication, improves patient knowledge about malignancy risk, reduces emotional distress, and improves quality of life. This model landed the center a 2020 ACCC Innovator Award and epitomizes their commitment to delivering patient-centered care. “We can build tools that encourage patient engagement, so we're not talking at them,” Roelke said. “We're helping patients truly understand what's happening within their bodies.”
To match the passion and drive of its membership, ACCC offers extensive resources that address the complex challenges in delivering quality lung cancer care. To view these essential resources, visit our website; you may also follow #ACCCWLCD on your preferred social media platform.
At the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting, the Louisiana Oncology Society received the ASCO Jeffrey C Ward Affiliate Advocacy Award for advancing critical advocacy priorities that have translated into meaningful legislative victories. The Iowa Oncology Society and Washington State Medical Oncology Society were also recognized for their advocacy efforts in 2025 at the meeting, receiving second place awards.
