By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor
Dr. Michael Gieske exemplifies just the kind of doctor you would want for yourself — kind, personable, charming, capable, well educated, experienced, dedicated, warm, engaging — and ferocious. Yes, beyond that gentle, calming personna is a ferocious healer, a ferocious advocate for early lung cancer screening, and a guy as ferocious as a junk yard dog about grinding deaths from lung cancer to a fitting end. Zero. Nothing else will do.
Gieske grew up in NKY — and did some growing up at St. Elizabeth too. He graduated from St. Pius, got his first job in a lab at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, and did his residency there after University of Louisville med school. He has practiced family medicine for 38 years, but since 2019 he has been director of the lung screening program at St. Elizabeth.
There was a time when if you asked Gieske if he wanted to be a lung cancer specialist, he would have said absolutely not — “Nobody wanted to do lung cancer because all the patients died,” he said. Today — thanks in part to Gieske’s own ferocious advocacy for early screening, patients now survive and thrive — if they are tested early enough.
“We’ve invested a lot of resources in going after lung cancer, and we’ve developed a very successful, robust lung cancer screening program,” said Gieske. “We are finding it very early and when you find lung cancer in the early stages, for example in stage one, you’re going to have a greater than 90% chance of curing the cancer.”
Despite the fact that in 2022 Kentucky had the highest incidence of lung cancer in the U.S. and that lung cancer leads the list of cancer-caused deaths, Gieske and his team are showing remarkable results. And the data is attracting notice of the health community around the world. Gieske speaks tirelessly at conferences and meetings everywhere — and when he talks about St. Elizabeth’s data driven results, people pay attention.
For example, in 2013, St. Elizabeth did just seven lung cancer screenings. That number was 10,000 at last count — with a goal of 50,000 by March, 2025. Credit the promotion of awareness — but also new technology and ease of screening.
“We could only improve — and going UP was the only way to go,” he said, and improve they did as St. Elizabeth is now one of the top three lung cancer programs in the country.
The primary cause of lung cancer is smoking, so enter an aggressive stop-smoking effort (and, yes, eliminating smoking areas in waiting rooms). But the focused awareness education emphasizes the even nonsmokers can get lung cancer — so don’t let that stop you. About 20% of lung cancers are caused by radon exposure.
Success does take a team, and Gieske embraces his team with pride and respect — including the “glue” for the screening program, three fulltime screening nurse navigators who follow the patients through a complicated and scary time of their lives and the savvy members of the Nodule Review Board who review every suspicious nodule they find and decide on the path to take. All are motivated by the difference they can make for patients and their families.
Part of the secret to their success is that the team has reached out in a major way to primary care physicians to educate on the value of early detection. Another part is embracing the science and doing the research, advocacy, and policy work. Another is the sheer enjoyment of working with people — and keeping a eye on the real “C-word.” Cure.
Gieske also serves on the board of the White Ribbon Project, an international grassroots organization promoting early lung cancer screening, and was awarded a “Catalyst For Change” award for his efforts to promote awareness of lung cancer and by changing public perception of the disease and encouraging early screening.
The screenings rely on low-dose CT scans.
“It’s called low dose CT lung cancer screening. It’s 1.3 millisieverts, which to put in perspective: natural background radiation. If you walk around over the course of a year, you absorb about 5 millisieverts. So it’s about a fifth of what you absorb just through natural background radiation. So it’s a low dose but you get very good resolution.”
He also says the procedure is a one-breath hold and is the “easiest test” to undergo.
“It takes three minutes. They don’t have to have anything put it in them, up and down them, through them. You know, there’s no dye. It’s very quick and painless. They leave their clothes on. So it’s an extremely easy test to do, and it has an extremely impactful outcome.”
The White Ribbon Project grassroots campaign is homegrown by lung cancer patients and caregivers, looking to support one another. The organization creates white wooden ribbons to signify lung cancer awareness.
As an avid hiker and backpacker, Gieske always wanted to make the trip to Mount Everest Base Camp — and doing it for the White Ribbon project was just the right motivation. “It was a nine-day trek, 9,000 feet climbing elevation.”
St. Elizabeth’s was the first cancer center to host a White Ribbon Build and through that process, built more than 128 (wooden) white ribbons. One of those ribbons made it up to Everest Base Camp with Dr. Gieske. It was the motivation he needed to keep going, despite the challenges on the trip up.
Gieske is a true outdoorsman — and the whole family enjoys “active” vacations– fishing, hiking, biking, the beach. They have visited all 50 states over the years and Gieske himself has backpacked 800 miles of the Appalachian Trail over several trips — where he can get fresh air and exercise while seeing beautiful sights and meeting interesting people. All the while carrying his white ribbons.
He and his wife, a nurse, have two grown daughters and two grandchildren. They continue to travel together whenever possible — and to lead an active lifestyle.
In both his professional and personal life, Gieske is committed to “raising awareness and hope.” He is in all ways a deserving Tribune NewsMaker of 2024. Wrap a white ribbon around it.
Tomorrow: NewsMaker Shaun Pan