Zablocki VA Health Care System Lung Cancer Screening program saves lives

Prior to joining the Army at 17, David Ryba wasn’t a smoker or a drinker.

He recalled having a liberty pass to go off base for a few hours during his initial entry training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He visited some bars in the area with a few buddies who were also 17.

“None of them would serve us alcohol even though we had military IDs and everything, but they would sell you cigarettes,” Ryba said.

He quickly picked up smoking, as a result.

“When I got to basic training there, just about everybody smoked, so they kind of taught me how to do it, and they used to give us free cigarettes in our C-rations,” he added.

Now, 55 years later, Ryba is still a smoker.

Several years ago, he requested a lung cancer screening through his primary care provider at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center. Within the past year, he was diagnosed and treated for Stage I lung cancer.

Thankfully, he completed treatment approximately six months ago and is currently cancer free.

Approximately 8,000 Veterans are diagnosed and treated for lung cancer in the VA healthcare system every year according to the VA’s National Oncology Program. Overall, Veterans have a higher rate of lung cancer and a lower rate of survival than the general population.

Early detection and intervention are key to increasing lung cancer survivability and requires seamless integration from screening, to diagnosis, to treatment.

“Milwaukee VA is actually one of the leading programs in terms of implementing it in a multi-disciplinary format because screening for lung cancer is useless if you’re not going to follow it up with quick tissue diagnosis and quick treatment,” said Dr. Kavita Ratarasarn, the lead for the lung cancer screening program at the Milwaukee VA.

“So all the radiology department, the pulmonary department, which is involved in the diagnosis part, and then our oncology department and surgery department, which are involved in the treatment part –  we all have to work very closely,” she said. “Our Veteran has to move through these different departments, and the handover has to be very seamless to make sure that things keep moving.”

She added that shared decision-making is integrated at the outset, and ensuring the Veteran understands the process and what to expect is vital to the program’s success.

Lung cancer screening is most successful when done over time. Ryba, for instance, received several annual low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans before a cancerous nodule was detected on his lung. In the coming months and years, he will continue to be screened through the program.

“The great thing about our program is that we have this nationally developed database of our patients in Milwaukee,” said Jennifer Schmidt, one of the lung cancer screening coordinators for the program. “We can go in, and we can see who had a scan, who’s due for a yearly scan, who’s due for a scan in three months, who’s due for a scan in six months. Then we have reminders, and our system is integrated so well with the electronic health record. We can then remind the patient.”

There are approximately 2,800 Veterans currently in the Milwaukee VA Medical Center’s lung cancer screening database. Since tracking through the database began in 2022, 46 Veterans have been diagnosed with lung cancer.

When Ryba was diagnosed, he received radiation therapy treatment.

“They describe it as being blasted with a big microwave, but the beam is tiny and they can focus it,” Ryba said.

He received three outpatient treatments that lasted approximately 30 minutes each with three weeks between treatments. He said his treatment was painless and non-invasive, noting that if he had been recommended for surgery, they would have removed about 10 percent of his lung capacity.

Ryba said he would recommend Veterans get screened for lung cancer, “especially if they’ve smoked as long as I have.”

Lung Cancer Screening events in the Zablocki VA Health Care System

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and the VA is encouraging lung cancer screening for all eligible Veterans.

The Milo C. Huempfner Green Bay VA Health Care Center is hosting a Lung Cancer Awareness and Screening Day event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 7 in rooms 1H001 and 1H002, at its facility at 2851 University Ave., in Green Bay.

The Milwaukee VA is hosting a Lung Cancer Screening Day and the Great American Smokeout from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 14 in the south entrance of the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, 5000 W. National Ave.

Both events will offer resources and on-site screening for eligible Veterans. For walk-in screenings, Veterans must be:

• 50-80 years old
• Smoke cigarettes now or have quit within the past 15 years
• Smoked cigarettes for at least 20 pack-years (20 pack-years equals smoking one pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years or two packs of cigarettes a day for 10 years)

For more information on the Green Bay Lung Cancer Awareness and Screening Day event: https://www.va.gov/milwaukee-health-care/events/74323

For more information on the Milwaukee VA Lung Cancer Screening Day and the Great American Smokeout: https://www.va.gov/milwaukee-health-care/events/74538