The radiologists from the USA at the MUG

13.06.2019

The world-class radiologists, prof. Claudia Henschke and prof. David Yankelevitz from Mount Synai Hospital in New York visited Gdańsk at the invitation of prof. Edyta Sznurowska, the Vice-Rector for Clinical Affairs at the MUG. On June 6^th-8^th the Professors participated in the 42nd Congress of the Polish Medical Radiological Society, and on June 11^th they met with the President Lech Walesa at the European Solidarity Centre The talks were attended by the deputy general director of the University Clinical Centre for medical logistics Adam Sudoł, PhD and the MUG’s press spokesman Joanna Śliwińska.

Professors Claudia Henschke and David Yankelevitz are th inventors of the contemporary method of lung cancer screening. In 1992, as the first researchers in the world, they applied low-dose computer tomography to these test. This procedure itself is really fast (7-15 seconds), and is performed without intravenous administration. The dose of radiation absorbed by the patient is 10 times less than the dose absorbed in conventional tomography.

In 2011, after 20 years of research on the method’s implementation, it has been assessed that its use reduces the mortality rate for lung cancer by 20% thanks to the possibility of early detection of lung cancer. The study is performed among smokers who constitute a group of people particularly at risk of developing this cancer. In 2015, the method was introduced as available under insurance in the USA. In Poland, such research was implemented in 2009 by the Department and Clinic of Chest Surgery at the MUG, headed by prof. Witold Romans. In September 2019 a nationwide pilot program for screening lung cancer in Poland will be introduced.

The available research date strongly indicates that this is the only method that gives the possibility of detecting lung cancer in the early stages of the disease. It is notable that lung cancer is the most deadly malignant tumor that we know.