WVU Medicine LUCAS Mobile Unit to Offer Lung Cancer Screenings in West Virginia

LUCAS Brings Mobile Lung Cancer Screening to Salem, Jane Lew, Franklin and Buckhannon in December

In West Virginia, more people die of lung cancer than of colorectal, prostate and breast cancer combined. That single statistic, reported by My Buckhannon, is the reason a mobile screening unit named LUCAS will spend the first four days of December parked outside clinics in Harrison, Lewis, Pendleton and Upshur counties.

The unit offers low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans — the same kind of early-detection logic behind mammography, applied to the lungs. Catching lung cancer early, when it is easier to treat and cure, is the entire point of the trip.

Four Stops, Four Phone Numbers

LUCAS — an acronym for Lung Cancer Screening — is a service of WVU Medicine-WVU Hospitals and the WVU Cancer Institute. According to My Buckhannon, which first reported the schedule, the unit will be at:

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Dec. 1: WVU Medicine Salem Family Healthcare, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — call 304-782-2000, option 3
Dec. 2: Family Medical Clinic of Jane Lew, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — call 304-884-7880
Dec. 3: Pendleton Community Care, Inc. of Franklin, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — call 304-358-2355
Dec. 4: Community Care of Buckhannon, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — call 304-473-5600, ext. 2903

Every stop runs the same eight-hour window.

Scheduling Requires Advance Planning for Screening

Appointments must be made at least 14 days in advance of the visit. That lead time exists for a specific reason: a physician’s order and prior authorization from insurance are both required to get screened, and the pre-authorization process takes time.

WVU Medicine’s mobile unit, LUCAS, is offering lifesaving lung cancer screenings in Randolph and Upshur counties this November. Call ahead to schedule today! #LungCancerScreening #WVUMedicine Read more: pic.twitter.com/qM3vUnfP2f

— https://x.com/WVNews247/status/2109633934807969933

With the first stop on December 1, the booking window for Salem closes in mid-November — meaning anyone hoping for that slot needs to call, secure a doctor’s order, and let the insurer process the authorization well before the unit arrives.

Who Pays, and Who Is Covered by Grants

The screenings are billed to private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare. My Buckhannon also reported a key safeguard: West Virginia residents without insurance who qualify under the screening criteria can still get their lung cancer screening on LUCAS thanks to grant money and donor contributions. In a state where rural access to screening is limited or nonexistent, that grant-funded lane is the difference between a scan and no scan for people without coverage.

Why a Bus Matters in Rural West Virginia

The mobile unit covers communities across West Virginia, with a focus on rural areas where lung cancer screening is scarce or unavailable. The program builds directly on the success and infrastructure established by Bonnie’s Bus, WVU Medicine’s earlier mobile mammography unit.

The stakes are concrete. Lung cancer kills more West Virginians than three other major cancers combined, and early detection through regular LDCT screening is the tool that changes outcomes.

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More information about LUCAS is available at WVUCancer.org/LUCAS, and the full schedule was also published by wvnews.com.

What remains open is whether the 14-day advance requirement and the insurance pre-authorization process will affect the December appointments, and how many uninsured West Virginia patients who meet screening criteria will receive their scans through grant funding.