Nearly 8,000 veterans are diagnosed and treated in the VA for lung cancer each year. An estimated 900,000 are at risk for lung cancer due to age, smoking, and environmental exposures during and after military service.
The VA’s Lung Precision Oncology Program (LPOP), a component of VHA’s Precision Oncology Initiative, aims to give VA clinicians a range of tools to proactively address and treat lung cancer in Veterans. Precision oncology uses patients’ unique genetic profiles from their tumor to tailor individualized treatment and connect them with new therapies through clinical trials.
LPOP addresses lung cancer by improving screening, expanding available care, and developing innovative new treatments. The VA has locations in the U.S. serving as centralized LPOP hub sites. These sites coordinate with local VA facilities regarding screening, genetic testing, and participation in clinical trials.
Specific initiatives within LPOP include:
- Utilizing data analytics captured in the Cancer Care Registry to assess the quality of care in Veterans
- The VA Partnership to Increase Access to Lung Cancer Screening (VA-PALS), a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and computer scientists working to increase access to lung cancer screening
- The VA Lung Cancer and Stereotactic Radiotherapy Trial is a phase-three randomized clinical trial investigating the role of high precision radiation therapy as an alternative to surgery for early stage lung cancer
- Using TeleOncology to increase access to care for Veterans who live long distances from VA facilities or have difficulty traveling
Go to https://research.va.gov/programs/lpop/default.cfm for more information on the VA.