On Sunday, November 24, 2024, Dr. Eric Winer interviewed Lynn Tanoue, MD, MBA, Professor or Medicine (Pulmonary) and Director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital. Dr. Tanoue is a pulmonary critical care specialist who predominantly treats patients with lung cancer.

On this episode of Yale Cancer Answers, Dr. Tanoue shares recent changes in lung cancer screening guidelines, and advancements in care. Dr. Tanoue says her most rewarding moments are always with patients, though she is also a researcher and a leader in improving care overall for people with lung disease. She has been focusing on lung cancer for the past 15 years.

Dr. Tanoue founded the Yale Cancer Center Thoracic Oncology Program (TOP) in 2004. “As a pulmonologist, I was acutely aware that my patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer—or those we were worried had lung cancer—were having to deal with very complicated care with many different tests and physicians at a time when they were emotionally and sometimes physically challenged,” she said. Her goal was to center care around patients and give them ready and easy access to the variety of specialists necessary to deliver the best care. She works to provide streamlined, multidisciplinary care with physicians specializing in pulmonary medicine, thoracic surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, and palliative medicine, supported by a team of nurse coordinators and social workers.