6
Centegra
HealthSystem
S
ome people see into the future. A few
actually plan for the future they see.
Such was the case with Spiridon
Gerolimatos, MD, medical director of
imaging for Centegra Health System.
Dr. Gerolimatos had
believed for many years
that low-dose CT scans had
an important role to play in
detecting early stage lung
cancer. He had to wait for
the science to catch up,
however.
“I knew it would just be
a matter of time before we
could prove that it would
save lives and put it into
practice,” he says.
So when researchers
verified that the
screenings were effective,
Dr. Gerolimatos was ready
to go. That’s one of the
reasons why Centegra was
one of the first in the area
to have a low-dose CT lung
cancer screening program.
FINDING CANCER EARLY
Currently, most lung cancers diagnosed
at Centegra are of a later stage and are
found only after people start experiencing
symptoms, such as coughing or losing
weight. In later stages, these tumors may
have already spread and are difficult to treat.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of
cancer-related deaths in McHenry County.
This makes early screening of people at high
risk for this disease all the more important.
Centegra’s screening program, in operation
STAR-rated treatment
Cancer treatment has physical
and emotional after-effects. The
Centegra Survivorship Training and
Rehabilitation (STAR) Program
®
offers programs to help you cope
and improve your activities of daily
living through prehabilitation,
rehabilitation and follow-up care.
For information on the Centegra
STAR program, call the STAR
coordinator at
815-759-4870
or
visit
centegra.org/star
.
Centegra offers low-dose CT
lung cancer screening and more
Getting
ahead
of
lung
cancer
Is lung cancer screening for you?
To be eligible for low-dose CT lung cancer screening, you must:
w
Be 55 to 74 years old
w
Have smoked the equivalent of 30 pack years (30 years of
smoking a pack a day, 15 years of smoking two packs a day, etc.)
w
Have stopped smoking within the last 15 years if you are an
ex-smoker
This $299 screening is free through the end of April. To schedule your screening,
call Centegra at
815-334-5566
. The free screenings are made possible in part by
a generous donation from the Gavers Community Cancer Foundation.
for two years, aims to lower the number of
lung cancer deaths by finding and treating
cancer early.
COMPLETE CARE
The Centegra Sage Cancer Center takes on
lung cancer with a full continuum of care—
beginning with screening and continuing
through survivorship care. Screenings are
offered for free until the end of April (see
page 22).
If your lung cancer screening detects a
problem, the team at Centegra works with
you to create a treatment program that’s
right for you.
For early-stage lung cancer, that
treatment may include surgery.
“When you find lung cancer early, before
it has spread, you may have many more
surgical options,” says Thomas J. Hinkamp,
MD, cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon at
Centegra. “A surgeon might even be able to
remove the entire tumor.”
The surgeon may also recommend
you follow surgery with chemotherapy.
This treatment combination can put
lung cancer into remission, according to
Dr. Hinkamp.
“The benefit of screening to find lung
cancer in its early stages becomes obvious
when you’re able to stop the cancer and
provide the opportunity for a cure,” he says.
Thomas J.
Hinkamp, MD
Spiridon
Gerolimatos,
MD
If you
smoke, sign up
for Freedom From
Smoking.
See page 16.
