Media Coverage

Northwestern Medicine Using AI to Advance Breast Cancer Screenings

Northwestern Medicine is turning to artificial intelligence to elevate screenings by improving accuracy, which could help find cancers that might otherwise go undetected.

Doctor Georgia Spear, the chief of breast imaging at Northwestern Medicine, joined ABC7 to share how they are using AI tools.

Mammograms Can Be Used to Indicate Potential Sign of Heart Disease

Diagnostic radiologist with Northwestern Medicine Dr. Georgia Spear joins Lisa Dent to highlight a new law in Maryland requiring mammography centers to inform patients when their scans show signs of breast arterial calcification, a warning sign for heart disease.

Chicago doctors Explain Pope Leo XIV’s Cancer Diagnosis; Prayer Held at His Childhood Home in Dolton

Doctors removed the lower lobe of the pope’s right lung during a procedure that followed the recent discovery of a mass. The disease is believed to be in its early stages and is described as the most common form of lung cancer.

Dr. Justin Karush, a thoracic surgeon with the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, said it had appeared likely the mass was cancerous.

Bucktown Church Holds Prayer for Pope Leo Ahead of his Lung Surgery: ‘South Siders Are Tough’

Catholics in the Chicago area joined others around the world in supporting Pope Leo ahead of the procedure. The surgery is intended to remove a nodule on his lung, which the pontiff has said is in a very initial phase and well localized.

“Once a piece of lung with the nodule is removed, all of it goes to the lab to be processed, and depending on how complicated the diagnosis is, we can get the answer pretty quickly,” said Dr. Kalvin Lung of Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute.

As Pope Leo XIV Prepares to Have Lung Nodule Removed, Lung Health and Screening Get the Spotlight

Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to have surgery to have a nodule in his lung removed, which Northwestern Medicine experts say has put lung health into a needed spotlight.

“The lung health center is designed to offer all adults an opportunity to screen their lungs,” said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery. “Lung nodules are very common. Not all lung nodules need to be removed.”

Is Pope Leo’s Lung Surgery a Common Operation?

Pope Leo is undergoing surgery tomorrow to remove a nodule in his lung. Doctor Kalvin Lung, thoracic surgeon at the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, joined ABC7 to talk about the operation.

“Sometimes nodules are very common, and we don’t really know what the diagnosis is yet, but there are different ways to understand what the nodule is for, and one of those ways is surgery,” said Lung.

Chicagoans Offer Prayers as Pope Leo Prepares for Lung Nodule Surgery

Samuel Kim, a professor of surgery at Northwestern Medicine, said he is optimistic about the pope’s outlook.

“Even at an advanced age, I know the pope is in his 70s, but he’s in very good health and active. The pope should be able to have the operation pretty well and recover. So, I’m very optimistic about the prognosis for our pope,” Kim said.