Salt Lake City, UT -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2018 -- Mr. Jerry Remy, the well-recognized broadcast voice of the Boston Red Sox, is a five-time lung cancer survivor. In an interview conducted by ProLung, Inc. ("ProLung" or the "Company"), Mr. Remy and his wife, Phoebe, urge those at risk of lung cancer "to get to their doctor."
Their powerful video message can be viewed exclusively on ProLung's website, http://www.prolunginc.com or https://vimeo.com/233036957.
"Our thoughts are with our dear friend Jerry and his family in his battle with lung cancer," said Steven Eror, President and CEO of ProLung®. "Jerry's journey mirrors so many lung cancer patients and his simple message of 'get to your doctor' may be life-saving. Early detection of lung cancer is critical because it may improve survival, expand the time available to treat the disease and lower the cost of current approaches. Patients like Jerry want access to non-invasive, radiation-free and rapid predictive analytic tests."
About Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. It kills more than colorectal, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers combined. Lung cancer has the lowest five-year survival rate of all major cancers, at approximately 17 percent. Approximately 1,800,000 new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed globally in 2012. According to the American Cancer Society, there were 224,390 new cases of lung cancer in the USA in 2016 with 158,080 disease-related deaths resulting from tobacco use, exposure to secondhand smoke, radon, asbestos and other risk factors.
There is a severe unmet clinical need to reduce the time required to determine malignancy in lung cancer patients diagnosed with Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodules (IPNs). Patients with IPNs can receive multiple CT scans over the course of months and years to confirm malignancy in their lungs. This wait often proves fatal as the cancer advances and spreads. The chance to diagnose and treat a malignant nodule in its earliest, localized state is often lost. If lung cancer is diagnosed while localized at an early stage, the five-year survival rates can soar three times to well over 50 percent with existing treatments.
In 2015, ProLung, Inc. was extremely heartened when the US Preventive Services Task Force and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the first national lung cancer screen utilizing a low-dose CT scan (LDCT) of the chest. The screen will amplify the clinical need as it identifies up to 24,000,000 patients with IPNs who may experience a narrowing treatment window as they wait.
ProLung's predictive analytics device rapidly evaluates IPNs that have been identified by CT scan and provides an accurate assessment of the risk of malignancy in the lungs. Patients with a high probability of malignancy may be prioritized for biopsy, which can lead to an earlier diagnosis with improved prognosis and treatment options. Patients with a low probability of malignancy may benefit from a reduction in futile biopsies which involve significant risk (4.4% mortality rate for resection by thoracotomy, possible pneumothorax and infection), a relaxed CT vigilance program and decreased emotional trauma.
Results published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology and performed at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine yielded 92% specificity and 90% sensitivity in subjects with one or more indeterminate lung masses, confirmed by tissue biopsy. Other published research demonstrates superior performance in the evaluation of these patients in comparison to FDG PET scans. Further testing of the accuracy and safety of the ProLung Test is underway at multiple sites including MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Mayo Clinic, Stanford Health Care, Loyola University Medical Center, Henry Ford Health System, MUSC Health, UCLA Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard Medical School), Huntsman Cancer Institute and many other world-class organizations.
About ProLung, Inc.
ProLung's mission is to make a difference in time for lung cancer patients. ProLung is the world leader in innovative predictive analytics technology and non-invasive tests for the risk stratification of lung cancer. The Company develops, tests, and commercializes solutions which may shorten the time to diagnosis and expand the therapeutic window for lung cancer patients. ProLung's predictive analytics platform for lung cancer risk stratification is approved for sale in the European Economic Area and investigational use in the USA.
http://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/lung-cancer/learn-about-lung-cancer/lung-cancer-fact-sheet.html
http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@research/documents/document/acspc-047079.pdf
http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html