PORTLAND, Maine - Maine Medical Center will be coordinating a new effort to prevent and detect lung cancer. The effort is being funded, in large part, by a $5 million grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.
Dr. Paul Han of Maine Med says key to the effort will be coordinating the work of several groups or institutions, including Maine General Medical Center, the American Lung Association of Maine, and others.
"Institutions and partners who don't always work together, actually, and who bring different skills and areas of expertise and strengths and so forth, to kind of work together in a coordinated fashion to attack the problem of lung cancer in Maine," Han says.
The money will fund a four-year effort to prevent lung cancer by helping Mainers quit smoking, and identifying and addressing radon contamination. Han says the project will also try to improve screening, since lung cancer is more treatable when detected early.
In the interest of disclosure, Dr. Paul Han's wife, Cindy Han, is a producer for MPBN's Maine Calling program.
