September 7, 2012 - Baptist Memorial Online

A R O U N D T H E S Y S T E MLung cancerContinued from page 1He moved to Memphis in 2005 to join Baptist Medical Group’s BostonBaskin Cancer Foundation and continued a multidisciplinary approach tocare.“The South, Mid-South and the Southwestern U.S. have the largestnumber of lung cancer cases. It is heavily skewed toward this side of thecountry. Shelby County is right in the middle of lung cancer incidents andmortalities. We are in the top 90th percentile. Lung cancer is not based onrace, wealth, sex or poverty. It cuts across all demographics.”Osarogiagbon recognizes there are several challenges with dealing withlung cancer patients particularly if they have previous health problems.“The idea that the care you receive is important can make a differencebecause that’s something people don’t normally pay attention to. Peoplethink once you get lung cancer you will die. We have to help people understandthat’s not true. The average age of diagnosis is 72, and 80 percent ormore of the patients are 65 and older. Smoking is the key risk factor. Manytimes, lung cancer patients have bad lungs, a bad heart, high blood pressure,diabetes, kidney problems and one quarter have already survived oneprevious cancer by the time you find their cancer. There are those patientswith lung cancer who can be cured, and it’s about finding those patients andwhen you find them you need to do a series of proper steps to get them treatmentthat can potentially cure their cancer and get the benefit of it.”Baptist Memphis 5K Fun Run & Walk for WellnessThe inaugural Baptist Memphis 5K attracted close to 200 runners and walkers,Saturday, Aug. 18 at Shelby Farms Park. The 5K was a component of the BaptistMemphis Well4Life program to address four aspects of wellness–physical, nutritional,financial and spiritual.Osarogiagbon won a $3 million National Cancer Institute grant to study themultidisciplinary approach to lung cancer treatment. It will begin in July2013. He is leading the efforts and is working to form a team of scientists andclinicians to start the trial.The goal is to improve the proper testing of lymph nodes to determine ifthe cancer is spreading. Osarogiagbon says when patients are deemed to becandidates for lung cancer surgery, the thing that determines their longtermsurvival is whether or not the cancer has spread into their lymph nodesand which lymph nodes. He developed a kit for surgeons with separatelylabeled containers for the individual lymph node samples needed for thetests and a road map of where to find them. Also, he and his team requestedthe remaining lung tissue from prior tests to check for lymph nodes andtraces of cancer. Combined, these two processes can negatively impact therate of lung-cancer-surgery deaths, he said.Baptist Union County hosts back to school fairBaptist Memorial Hospital-Union County hosted its annual Back to School HealthFair on Aug. 13 with more than 500 children. The event offered free health screenings,health and safety information as well as school supplies. The event wasexpanded to include an early childhood corner for newborns to 4-year-olds. Picturedare the hotdog chefs for the event: left, Samuel Lynd, assistant administrator; andRandy White, CNO.“We have to figure out what is the best treatment for you, and the besttreatment not only depends on the type of lung cancer you have, but it alsodepends on where else the lung cancer has spread. One of the things we areworking on right now is called a multidisciplinary thoracic program. The keyidea is rather than make the patient jump from one place to another, whydon’t we have them flow through the multidisciplinary program and have allthe physicians and surgeons in one place at one time. The idea is you comehere and we look at the information. We decide what we need to do when andwho needs to do it. We also expect that will improve the quality of care bydetermining the exact needs of the patient.”The regional study will include five Baptist Memorial hospitals and otherinstitutions in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky where five ormore lung cancer surgeries occur each year. Osarogiagbon and the team willset up partnerships with the hospitals and clinics and show them a differentway to run tests for lung cancer screenings, and he will report their dataduring and at the end of the five-year period.“We have five years to show an effective intervention and demonstrate theprocess and effectiveness. Part of what we are trying to do goes across rural,high volume institutions and low volume institutions. We want to see howBaptist DeSoto hosts its first Farmer’s MarketMarylynne Brooks, right, looks at the fresh greens with Wilmetta Neely at BaptistMemorial Hospital-DeSoto's farmer's market, Friday, Aug. 24. The hospital offeredits first farmer’s market for colleagues and the community and attracted more than500 people. With Mississippi at the top of the list for obesity, Food and NutritionDirector Tim Liskey hopes the market will encourage the community to eat morehealthy, fresh foods.“It really starts with small changes, and one of those changes is eating fresh produce.Education is one thing, but showing people how to do it is trulyeffective this intervention is in different types of facilities.” Page 3something else,” he said.