The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of northwestern university at northwestern Memorial Hospital

Advancing the Prevention, Diagnosis
and Treatment of Lung Cancer
More than 200,000 Americans were diagnosed
with lung cancer in 2011, according to the National 
Institutes of Health. The disease is the leading 
cause of cancer death in both men and women, 
claiming more lives each year than breast, colon 
and prostate cancer combined. 
With advances in early detection, minimally invasive 
diagnostic procedures, individualized therapies, 
innovative research and supportive care, collaborative 
work between Northwestern Memorial Hospital, 
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer 
Center of Northwestern University is achieving 
significant enhancements in survival and quality of life. 
“Both the quantity and the quality of life can be 
improved in every stage of disease,” says Malcolm
M. DeCamp, MD, chief of the Division of Thoracic 
Surgery at Northwestern Memorial and Fowler 
McCormick Professor of Surgery at Feinberg. “It 
requires patients to be treated by dedicated thoracic 
oncology specialists who achieve lower mortality
rates, fewer complications, shorter hospital stays
and superior outcomes.”
Northwestern Memorial’s multidisciplinary Thoracic 
Oncology program, made up of surgeons, medical 
oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, 
pathologists and interventional pulmonologists, 
meets weekly to discuss the optimal course of 
treatment for each patient. “The team meeting is 
absolutely critical because it gives us a chance
to review everything that’s happening with the 
patient and the treatment plan,” says Maryanne H. 
Marymont, MD, radiation oncologist on the medical 
staff at Northwestern Memorial and assistant 
professor of Radiation Oncology at Feinberg. 
Prevention
Lung cancer is the only common malignancy for 
which there is proof of a cause in the majority of 
cases: cigarette smoking. Twenty percent of adults 
in the United States smoke, making smoking 
cessation of vital importance to prevent lung 
cancer, says Brian L. Hitsman, PhD, assistant 
professor of Preventive Medicine and Psychiatry 
and Behavioral Sciences at Feinberg and a 
member of the Lurie Cancer Center‘s cancer 
Prevention and Control division. 
Through clinical trials, Dr. Hitsman and his team 
study innovative approaches to help people stop 
smoking, including using new delivery methods 
such as offering support by telephone for longer 
durations, consistent with tobacco use as a chronic 
condition. Behavioral treatments delivered via
online or smart phones, motivational interventions
to increase attempts at quitting and the use of 
multiple medications are all potential keys to 
improve outcomes. “Our focus is making available 
treatments more effective and getting more people 
to enter the quit process,” says Dr. Hitsman. “If a 
person doesn’t try quitting, they’re certainly not 
going to succeed.”