Rankin’s lymph nodes all tested negative for cancer, and she went home the following day. “I was cancer-free with no chemotherapy, and no radiation treatments had to be done,” Rankin says. “It was all because of this CT scan catching [the cancer] early.” Augusta Health is one of the only hospitals in the area to perform a lobectomy with robotic assistance. “Emily was the first case we’ve done here at Augusta Health using robotics,” Dr. Aguinaga notes. “I believe we are the only program in the entire region that is doing thoracic surgery using robotics.” Fast recovery Rankin’s surgery was in the morning, and that evening she says she was sitting up in a chair eating French fries. “Dr. Aguinaga came in, and he had the biggest smile on his face [because] I had recovered that quickly,” she says. She went home the next day. Within a few weeks, Rankin — who retired from a factory making pharmaceutical tubes in 2011 — says she was in her flowerbeds cleaning out leaves. “I’m doing everything I thought I would never get to do again because I had cancer,” she says. Rankin remains grateful for her husband’s support, along with the outstanding care she received from the medical team at Augusta Health. “I was scared to death,” she says. “Everybody seemed to put me at ease. The healthcare was really great. It was a bad experience that was made good.” Rankin also can’t emphasize how glad she is to have undergone the lung cancer screening. She encourages other high-risk individuals to do the same. “I hadn’t smoked for eight years, so I thought, oh, I’m fine, there’s nothing wrong with me,” she says. “If people would have these [screenings] done — especially if they were smokers and they stopped — they would have a good success story like mine.” IMPACT OF LUNG CANCER SCREENING AT AUGUSTA HEALTH Augusta Health began its Lung Cancer Screening program in April, 2014. According to radiologist Matthew Shapiro, MD, 37 Low Dose CT (LDCT) exams were performed in the first year, and one lung cancer was detected. To date, more than 1,600 LDCT exams have been performed and 43 lung cancers have been detected. That’s a detection rate twice than what was expected when the program began. “When we look only at patients diagnosed with lung cancer through screening, we see an even greater benefit with 53% in Stage 1A and only 7% in Stage 4. This suggests to me that there are probably more patients in our area who are at high risk for lung cancer but are not being screened,” says Dr. Shapiro. Lung Cancer Diagnoses through the Lung Cancer Screening Program, 2014-2018, YTD* Diagnosis 0 Years 2014-2018 *October, 2018 AUGUSTA HEALTH • CANCER PROGRAM ANNUAL REPORT 0% (n=0) 53.5% (n=23) 11.6% (n=5) 30.2% (n=13) 4.7% (n=2) 100% (n=43) 11 I II III IV Total Cases
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