Menu Thoracic & Foregut Surgery Meet Your Thoracic Doctors Lung Conditions Lung Cancer Lung Cancer Screenings Mesothelioma Lung Cancer in Kentucky Esophageal Conditions Achalasia Esophageal Cancer Esophageal Diverticulum Esophageal Perforation GERD Leiomyoma Motility Disorders Paraesophageal/Hiatal Hernias Other Chest Conditions Patient Success Stories The White Ribbon Project Complex Cancer Care. Right Here. On Friday, November 30, St. Elizabeth Healthcare broadcast an extraordinary educational event. To culminate lung cancer awareness month, thoracic surgeon, Dr. Royce Calhoun, narrated a complex lung cancer surgery he previously performed, broadcast live on Facebook. Viewers heard Dr. Calhoun discuss lung cancer, talk through the surgery and showcase the care needed to treat patients suffering from lung cancer. You can view the full broadcast on our Facebook page. Lung Cancer in Kentucky Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women in the United States. This statistic also hits close to home — the commonwealth of Kentucky has the highest incidence rate of lung cancer in the country. St. Elizabeth Healthcare wants to be a part of the solution. Our quest is to improve lung cancer survival rates on local, state-wide and national levels. One way to go about this is by offering complex cancer care right here at home. Another is by offering a lung cancer screening program to catch early, non-symptomatic lung cancer when it is at a more treatable stage. To determine if you are a candidate for a lung cancer screening, take our quick health-risk assessment online. Did You Know? Kentucky leads the nation in lung cancer incidence rates. 1 Kentucky leads the nation in lung cancer death rates. 2 Kentucky is 2nd in the nation for adult tobacco use. 3 If lung cancer is diagnosed earlier, stage 1, more than 6 in 10 survive 5 or more years versus if lung cancer is diagnosed later, stage 4, less than 1 in 10 survive 5 or more years. (Figure 1) In Kentucky, lung and bronchus cancer is the leading cause of death among both men and women. (Figure 2) Low-dose lung cancer CT screenings have increased 786% at St. Elizabeth between 2015 and 2017. 1 North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), 2017 2 National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017 3 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016 Figure 1 Figure 2