Lung Cancer
Lung Cancer at TMH
At Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH), we provide lung cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment close to home. Our team helps you understand your options and the next steps in your care.
Our physicians at TMH Physician Partners – Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep specialize in screening, diagnosing and treating lung cancer and work with other specialists to coordinate your care.
Lung Cancer and Screening
Lung cancer screening can help find cancer early, when treatment may be more effective. A low-dose CT scan takes detailed images of your lungs to look for signs of cancer before symptoms develop.
Who Should Be Screened?
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends yearly lung cancer screening for adults who meet all three criteria:
- Are ages 50–80.
- Currently smoke or quit smoking within the past 15 years.
- Have a smoking history of at least 20 pack-years.
What Is a Pack-Year?
A pack-year measures how much you have smoked over time. Smoking one pack of cigarettes (20 cigarettes) a day for one year equals one pack-year. Smoking one pack a day for 20 years equals 20 pack-years.
Talk with your primary care provider about whether lung cancer screening is right for you. Your provider can help you understand your smoking history and discuss the benefits and risks of screening.
What to Expect During Screening
If lung cancer screening is right for you, your provider will refer you for a low-dose CT scan of your chest. This scan creates detailed images of your lungs that are reviewed for any changes or areas that may need further evaluation. Your provider will discuss your results with you and explain any next steps.
MONARCH Robotic Bronchoscopy
Physicians at TMH can now detect lung cancer earlier than ever using the MONARCH™ Robotic Bronchoscopy Platform.
MONARCH™ helps physicians find small cancerous nodules in areas of the lungs that are harder to reach with traditional bronchoscopy. Our physicians use the image-guided robot to perform minimally invasive bronchoscopy procedures to detect, biopsy, diagnose and mark lung cancer.
It sometimes takes physicians multiple procedures to locate cancerous tumors in the lungs, but MONARCH™ gives physicians a better chance of finding cancer through fewer procedures.
Learn more about MONARCH™ at TMH.ORG/Monarch.
Tallahassee Memorial Thoracic Oncology Clinic
The Tallahassee Memorial Thoracic Oncology Clinic brings specialists together to review your case and develop an individualized care plan for suspected lung cancer or other cancers in the chest. You meet with the team to learn about your proposed plan and discuss next steps, helping you understand your care in one coordinated visit.
If you choose to receive care at the Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center, our thoracic oncology navigator helps coordinate your appointments, testing and procedures, providing support for you and your caregivers throughout your care.
