Abstract Purpose: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina are among the U.S. states with the highest proportions of Black residents. These states also face extraordinarily high rates of lung cancer mortality, particularly among Black residents. Lung cancer screening plays a major role in reducing these lung cancer mortality differences. While the current lung cancer screening guidelines offer screening to younger individuals who smoke, they are not eligible for Medicare coverage of their screening. This lack of access could create a wider gap in lung cancer mortality rates among members of different population groups. Methods: To address this concern, the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center collaborated across catchment areas to secure a four-year Stand Up To Cancer® grant and have developed a novel aim to test the effectiveness of a multimodal and multilevel patient navigation intervention to promote lung cancer screening among rural, urban, and Black patients from federally qualified health centers in VA, SC and NC. The intervention is a barrier-focused intervention designed to ensure timely access to screening. Results: A total of 151/675 Black participants have been recruited to the navigation intervention to date. Most participants are unmarried (84.1%), almost half have a high school diploma or less (47.7%), and most are individuals who currently smoke (84.7%). The participants are fairly evenly divided by sex (47.0% female). Conclusions: This SU2C study includes a unique lung cancer screening cohort that is younger, more likely to be unmarried, has lower levels of education, and includes more individuals who currently smoke than the predominantly White cohort in the National Lung Screening Trial. The SU2C study has created a novel strategy for lung cancer screening navigation that could become the gold standard in socially vulnerable and high-risk populations. Citation Format: Marvella E. Ford, Louise M. Henderson, Alison T. Brenner, Vanessa B. Sheppard, Tiffani Collins, Monique Williams, Rosuany Velez Acevedo, Christopher Lyu, Stephanie B. Wheeler, Chyanne Summers, Courtenay Scott, Darin King, Amber S. McCoy, Jessica Zserai, Sherrick S. Hill, Melanie Slan, Steve Bradley-Bull, Neusolia Valmond, Ellen Gomez, Megan R. Ellison, Robert Winn. Cross-catchment area collaboration: design and interim recruitment outcomes of a multi-modal, multi-level patient navigation intervention for lung cancer screening in the Southeast US abstract. In: Proceedings of the 18th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities; 2025 Sep 18-21; Baltimore, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2025;34(9 Suppl):Abstract nr C128.
Ford et al. (Thu,) studied this question.