“Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in men and in women, and it all boils down to how it is detected and when it is diagnosed,” said Michael Wert, director of the James Lung Cancer Screening clinic. The James has become a leader in screening high-risk smokers for lung cancer, with the goal of detecting lung cancer in the earliest of stages when it can be more easily treated. “Because of our screening [of smokers], the majority of lung cancers I see are in the very early stages,” Wert said. “In the last few weeks, we’ve had three or four patients who were able to undergo a curative surgical resection, without any further treatment, because we caught it so early.”