Awareness club screens Houstonians for lung cancer

By Belinda Zhu     11/12/24 9:55pm

With the beginning of National Lung Cancer Awareness Month in November, the Rice University American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative leadership said they are striving to bring attention to this disease. 

Rice ALCSI is one of 53 university chapters of the national organization, according to Priyanka Senthil ‘24, founder of the Rice chapter and executive director of the national organization.

Rice ALCSI co-president Pranav Mandyam said the club strives to raise awareness about lung cancer screening, in the Rice community and the broader Houston area with upcoming initiatives like the “Breathe Deep Together Lung Cancer Awareness Walk” and screening events. Mandyam emphasized that raising awareness is particularly crucial in Texas.

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“The national screening rate is below 5% for high-risk individuals,” Mandyam, a McMurtry College senior, said. “In Texas, it’s even lower, around 1.2% of high-risk individuals getting screened, making it one of the lowest in the country. So, we thought it’s really important to try to raise awareness every year in Texas, and here in Houston specifically.”

Senthil said she was drawn to the organization upon learning that lung cancer is the deadliest cancer among both men and women in the U.S. and the world. 

“When we think about some of the common cancers, … I think a lot of us think about breast cancer or colon cancer, and lung cancer has really been kind of hidden from the public view,” Senthil said. “Right now, less than 5% of people who are at high risk for lung cancer are getting screened, when compared to over 70% of people getting screened for breast cancer.”

Mandyam said their biggest goal is the upcoming awareness walk. 

“We reached out to over 100 different students, different organizations in the Houston area, their community centers, resource fairs, high schools, other industry partners and everything,” Mandyam said. “We’re trying to raise as much awareness as possible within the Houston community.”

Senthil said that Rice ALCSI goes beyond simply raising awareness by helping people schedule screenings. Their community partners include Houston Methodist and MD Anderson Cancer Center, who help subsidize screenings.

“When we’re out in the community and identify someone who is eligible and wants to get screened, we can work with screening centers near Rice to help them schedule a scan and guide them through the entire process,” Senthil said. “We’re really excited about this because it means we’re now translating our community outreach into real, tangible results — helping people actually get screened.”

Senthil said that all ALCSI chapters host weekly community outreach events and table at places including health fairs, farmers markets, churches, and festivals where they assess if individuals are eligible for lung cancer screening. 

“Anyone who is 50-80 years old, who has a 20 pack-year smoking history or more, and who currently smokes or has quit within the past 15 years is considered high risk for lung cancer and should be screened annually,” Senthil said. “At our outreach events, we talk to community members one-on-one to collect their age and smoking history to determine if they qualify for lung cancer screening.”

Senthil emphasized the importance of educating students about lung cancer screening, even if they are not eligible themselves. 

“We have found that many students know parents, grandparents, relatives or other individuals in their network who may be eligible for lung cancer screening and oftentimes are willing to share information about screening with that individual,” Senthil said. “In fact, at one of our tabling events on campus last semester, we were able to help get the father of a Rice student screened for lung cancer who had never heard about lung cancer screening prior.”

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