University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center researchers Jennifer Redmond Knight, Dr.P.H., and Timothy Mullett, M.D., are co-investigators on a new National Cancer Institute grant that will expand Kentucky's successful lung cancer screening quality improvement program to 60 sites across the U.S.
The project, led by former UK colleague Jamie Studts, Ph.D., now at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, builds on the Quality Implementation of Lung Cancer Screening (QUILS™) system that Knight, Mullett and Studts developed at the UK Markey Cancer Center. QUILS is part of the Kentucky LEADS (Lung cancer, Education, Awareness, Detection and Survivorship) Collaborative, which has transformed lung cancer screening and outcomes in Kentucky since its launch in 2014.
Under the National Institutes of Health's UG3/UH3 funding mechanism, the team has two years to refine the QUILS program and enroll 60 lung cancer screening sites nationwide. If successful, they can apply for an additional four years of funding to conduct a randomized trial to test what combinations of QUILS components are most effective in helping screening programs improve their services.
"This is an incredible opportunity for the QUILS group to expand the work of quality lung cancer screening across the country," said Knight. "We have worked together for more than 11 years to change the lung cancer story throughout Kentucky, and we recently extended our reach to Mississippi and Nevada. With this new NCI grant, we are looking forward to expanding our impact even further in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon and beyond."
The expansion to Mississippi and Nevada is supported by a separate $6.8 million grant from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, awarded earlier this year.
Mullett says that since QUILS was implemented in Kentucky, fewer patients are being diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer, meaning more patients are surviving the disease.
"The collaboration between the investigators has been impressive and impactful in Kentucky and beyond," Mullett said. "This is a fantastic opportunity to disseminate this process to many more communities and learn even more about optimizing lung cancer screening."
The QUILS system helps screening centers optimize their services by evaluating factors such as patient eligibility, tobacco cessation efforts and shared decision-making processes. Kentucky now has the nation's second-highest rate of lung cancer screening and has seen a 10% decrease in late-stage lung cancer diagnoses over the past decade.
"This award builds upon the foundation established through the LEADS Collaborative, which over the past decade has transformed lung cancer screening and outcomes in Kentucky," said UK Markey Cancer Center Director B. Mark Evers, M.D. "We congratulate Dr. Studts and the University of Colorado Cancer Center on this important recognition. His continued leadership of this work, alongside our Markey researchers Dr. Mullett and Dr. Knight, will help determine how this proven system can be replicated nationwide to save lives across the country."
Additional UK researchers on the project include Joseph "Trey" Alexander, Allyson Yates, Katie Bathje and Brent Shelton, Ph.D.
