WHEN IT COMES TO LUNG CANCER, an ounce of prevention is worth the proverbial pound of cure. Mercy Health has been a leader in the prevention and screening of those at high risk for lung cancer since 2015. Most recently, the Mercy Health lung program has expanded its services with the addition of a comprehensive lung cancer clinic.
Under the direction of Mohammad Al-Nsour, MD, medical oncologist, and with the guidance of Kendal Delaney, RN, lung nurse navigator, this clinic serves those who have already been diagnosed with lung cancer.
A multidisciplinary team consisting of a medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, thoracic surgeon, pulmonary specialist, pathologist, and radiologist, helps guide patients from diagnosis through treatment. This team of specialists collaborates to make recommendations for individual patient needs based on best practices and develops treatment plans that meet nationally accepted guidelines.
After meeting the entire team, the patient meets with each physician specialty where recommendations for treatments are discussed with the patient. The team’s objective is to provide patient-friendly, customizable, personalized care and a full range of treatment options suited to the patient and completed in a timely manner.
“Outcomes for lung cancer have significantly improved over the last several years with advances in chemotherapy, the advent of targeted immunotherapy and genetic testing, more precise radiation techniques, and advanced technology in surgical interventions. This is great news for patient outcomes, long-term survival, and even cure rates as we are able to develop customized treatment plans to answer specific patients’ needs,” Dr. Al-Nsour said.
“However, these advances bring more complexity to treatment plans. At Mercy Health - Cancer Center, we believe that a multidisciplinary environment is the best solution as physicians work together to create optimal treatment plans for their patients. Our multidisciplinary lung clinic strives to not only provide the best care but also to educate patients in their options and address quality-of life-issues as they navigate throughout the treatment process. I am truly grateful to work with a team of experienced and compassionate physicians and nurses,” he added.
Treatment recommendations are also discussed with the lung nurse navigator, Kendal Delaney. At the end of the patient’s clinic visit, Delaney meets with the patient to summarize the recommendations made by the multidisciplinary team.
As a nurse navigator who specializes in helping patients with lung cancer, Delaney’s job is to make sure lung cancer clinic patients are treated within a reasonable time frame. She helps schedule and expedite appointments, summarizes the care plan, answers any questions they might have, and helps connect them with available resources. She assists in navigating the patients’ cancer journey from diagnosis through treatment and into survivorship.
Delaney is also a trained smoking-cessation specialist who assesses patients’ readiness to quit smoking and provides resources and counseling to assist with smoking cessation when appropriate.
Delaney emphasizes that the Mercy Health lung program is essentially solution driven. “In addition to prevention and early detection programs, we’ve now introduced this new dimension to the solution. We’re confident our comprehensive lung cancer clinic will offer the best support with collaborative, patient-focused care,” she said. “With lung-screening and smoking-cessation components already in place, Mercy Health has long provided the necessary tools for prevention and early diagnosis. Adding the lung cancer clinic is a home run, the final dimension to our already well-established lung program.”
