• Nicholas R Pettit, Diane Horner, Sara Freeman, and Karen Rieger.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States of America. Electronic address: NRPettit@iu.edu.
• Am J Emerg Med. 2024 May 1; 79: 157160157-160.

IntroductionThe goal of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of referring patients for lung cancer screening (LCS) from the emergency department (ED) as a method to increase the uptake of LCS.MethodsThis is a single-arm pilot study at a large safety-net ED. ED LCS-eligible patients were offered a referral to our LCS clinic upon ED discharge. The primary outcome was the frequency at which patients connected with the LCS clinic.ResultsDuring the study period, 105 patients were approached; 26 (24.8%) participated. Reasons for non-enrollment include 29 (27.6%) who were not interested in research, 10 (9.5%) who did not speak English, and 40 (38.1%) who did not meet the pack-years criteria. Seventeen patients (65.4%, 17/26) connected with the LCS clinic, with 10 (38.5%) having been seen in the clinic and received a low dose computed tomography (LDCT) scan. Of the 17 that were connected with the clinic, 7 (26.9%) had a non-LDCT chest CT scan in the past year. Of those that were not seen in the clinic (n = 9), 4 (44.4%) were unreachable via 3 phone calls and a post-marked letter, and 3 (33.3%) did not attend the scheduled appointment, and 2 (22.2%) were delayed due to COVID-19. Of those that had CT scans over the study period (n = 17), 0 scans were normal, one patient (5.9%) had asymptomatic lung cancer, 7 (41.2%) had pulmonary nodules, 11 (64.7%) had emphysema, and 9 (52.9%) had coronary artery disease.ConclusionThis pilot study suggests the feasibility and suggests initial indications of the efficacy of referring ED patients for LCS.Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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