History

Since 2004, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) has participated in an annual lung cancer workshop sponsored by Prevent Cancer Foundation (PCF) focused on driving innovation and cross-disciplinary coordination in applying quantitative CT imaging to improve the diagnosis and outcomes of lung cancer and to explore the use of imaging as a quantitative tool for evaluating response to new therapies more rapidly and accurately. LCA is grateful to PCF President and Founder Carolyn Aldige and James L. Mulshine, MD, Associate Provost for Research at Rush Medical School and LCA Board Member for originating and sustaining this critically important annual event.

A persistent concern raised at those workshops has been the need for patient scans and clinical data to carry out the necessary research.  Public and private attempts to create an open access website to house the amount of data required have not been successful.  LCA agreed to take on the challenge and in 2008 developed a pilot program to test the feasibility of setting up a patient-driven process. The success of the pilot program led to the official launch of the Give A Scan program and website in June, 2010.