BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — The U.S. has made significant progress in the battle against lung cancer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), deaths peaked among men in 1990 and women in 2002 but have declined ever since.

However, there's still a long way to go, especially in Kentucky. The death rate from the disease is the highest in the nation, according to the CDC.

It's why people like Jennifer Finch of Med Center Health have helped start a new lung nodule program.

The technology will detect lung nodules at their early stages and quickly treat concerns by offering options that tailor to the diagnosis. 

“Stage 1 has a 70 to an 80% survivability rate, whereas Stage 4 has the opposite," said Finch, the director of clinical services. "We want to give people a chance at life.”

The program began in December 2023 and consists of an 11-provider team such as pulmonologists and medical oncologists.

“We look to see if they need additional imagery, do we need to go straight to bronchoscopy and biopsy ... do they need to go straight to surgery, do we need to wait and watch?" Finch said. "Or maybe it’s benign, and they don’t need anything.”

This area of the field hits home for Finch, as her father passed away from lung cancer 13 years ago. He was 71, she said. 

"He was of the school that he wanted to wait, because, historically, that’s what they had to do back then," Finch said. "They waited and watched and unfortunately, it grew."

"Ultimately, he passed away from that a few years later. If we had that technology when my father was diagnosed, he could still be here with us.”

Now, more than 10 years later, that technology is available. Finch is using her personal experience as motivation to never let someone go through the pain her family experienced.

"We want to be able to use that technology to share and help others," she said.