Commercializing Lung Cancer Screening - increasing awareness about Low-Dose CT (LDCT) screening

Student: Destiny Osagie, 2020-2021

Sponsor: Research Like a Champion(RLAC)/Harper Cancer Research Institute, South Bend, IN

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the US. The American Cancer Society estimates that in the year 2020, there will be approximately 135, 720 deaths in the US as a result of lung cancer. Rates of lung cancer are significantly high in rural Indiana, contrary to the accessibility of lung cancer screening centers and the low population densities. In the past year, ESTEEM students worked with Research Like a Champion (RLAC) and Harper Cancer Research Institute to conduct focus groups from which they gained insights about why smokers in these communities are reluctant to receive low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screenings and understand better ways to encourage participation in these screenings. LDCT screenings allow smokers who are at a high risk of having lung cancer to be screened for signs of cancer in their lungs. To increase the number of patients who participate in LDCT screenings and increase awareness about these screenings, commercialization models will be created for validation. Following validation, a launch strategy for one of the commercialization models will be developed using the insights from the previous market research.