Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign Research Articles

An evaluation of the Irish Cancer Society’s 2018 lung cancer awareness campaign

An evaluation of the Irish Cancer Society’s 2018 lung cancer awareness campaign

MS 19.05 “How to Beauty Your Day”: Looking Good, Feeling Better — An Italian Approach

It is estimated that in 2015, approximately 3 million people in Italy have received a cancer diagnosis during their lifetime. While in men cancer has decreased of 2.5%, in women the cases have risen from 168,000 to 176,000. Epidemiological data of lung cancer reveal a dramatic increase of the incidence and mortality in women, mainly due to the tobacco consumption in the female population during the past 60 years and since the 1980s, the gap between the two genders has narrowed. Nowadays lung cancer represents a global Women’s health issue and every year more women die due to lung cancer than for breast, ovarian and uterine cancer all together and receiving a cancer diagnosis together with the communication about treatment and care can lead to a series of extremely stressful and frightening events that cause both patients and their relatives to suffer emotionally. Psychological distress, depression and anxiety are related to poor quality of life in all its shapes and forms, including the physical-side. The disease and the treatments alter the patient body image and consequently change the personal identity; the body is no longer recognized and accepted in its new condition, and this may undercut the sense of femininity and diminish the confidence in the physical appearance and the self-esteem. It gets difficult for a woman to face the daily life because she is exposed to the external world with a body revealing visible signs of the illness and care. For addressing these issues, it is necessary to implement an holistic approach and this is one of the objectives behind the active commitment of WALCE (Women Against Lung Cancer in Europe) since 2006, when it was established. In 2009, it started the collaboration with “La forza e il sorriso – L.G.F.B. Italia,” the Italian version of a well-known program called “Look Good … Feel Better®,” launched in US in 1989 and currently active in 26 countries worldwide. It is a free make-up workshop project for women diagnosed with cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy or other cancer treatments. Beauty workshops are offered to help women to cope with treatment side effects and to regain the femininity and the self-confidence in their body with the aim to improve their quality of life by simple beauty techniques to enhance the appearance. Following this positive experience, WALCE designed a lung cancer awareness campaign, called: “How to beauty your day,” a make-up session program for women of all ages affected by cancer with the aim to reach little and peripheral hospitals in Italy, where the initiative “La forza e il sorriso” has not been provided yet and hospitals, where no general support programs for women with cancer have been developed. This initiative was launched in November 2010, during the World Lung Cancer Awareness Month and in some way it recalls the other one, but with some new addition. Together with the beauty sessions, educational events are organized with the aim to improve and reinforce the knowledge of people about the disease, the current treatment options, the side effects and any other related issues. This program was firstly carried out just in Italy and later on, it was expanded in other European countries (Spain, Serbia and Greece). From November 2010 to November 2016, WALCE organized 76 make-up workshops in several Italian locations and in Europe, in collaboration both with cancer centers and no profit organizations working in these areas; about 750 ladies attended the make-up workshops, guided by 7 voluntary beauticians and with the support of a psycho-oncologist. At the end of the session, the women are invited to complete a survey to assess the event and benefits received. The general response received until now is positive; most of participants declare to have learnt useful advice and to be very enthusiastic, whereas very few are a little doubtful. The most common adjectives used to describe patient feelings at the end of the experience are: beautiful, happy, positive, pretty and attractive. From the survey results, it seems that most of the ladies don’t think about the illness during the event and meeting other women in a similar situation is considered a positive experience. Cancer patients tend to better cope with the illness when self-confidence and self-esteem are regained. The sense of well-being shared in a relaxed atmosphere, acknowledging social, emotional and psychological needs and being amongst other ladies who feel the same fears or anxieties, has proven to be an incentive to fight against cancer. 1. Pikler VI, Brown C: Cancer Patients’ and Partners’ Psychological Distress and Quality of Life: Influence of Gender Role. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 28:43–60, 2010 Honda K, Goodwin R: Cancer and mental disorders in a national community sample: Findings from the national comorbidity survey. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 73: 235–242, 2004 2. Tuinstra J, Hagedoorn M, Van Sonderen E et al: Psychological distress in couples dealing with colorectal cancer: Gender and role differences and intracouple correspondence. British Journal of Health Psychology, 9: 465–478, 2004 3. Fife B, Kennedy V, Robinson L: Gender and adjustment to cancer: Clinical implications. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 12: 1–21, 1994 4. Phillips C: Images, femininity and cancer: an analysis of an international patient education programme. Health, 13: 67, 2009. lung cancer, body image, quality of life, femininity, self esteem

P2.08-014 Lung Cancer Awareness and Barriers to Primary Care in Ireland: Topic: Other

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in Ireland. * Previous research has shown awareness of lung cancer is high yet the majority of lung cancer patients continue to be diagnosed at an advanced stage.** In 2015 the Irish Cancer Society performed an online survey to examine the attitudes of the public in relation to the signs and symptoms of lung cancer and identify the perceived barriers for people accessing their GPs/pharmacists with symptoms. Objectives:•Test awareness of prevalence, symptoms, causes and impact of lung cancer.•Examine the incidence of recent interactions with health care professionals on the subject of lung health.•Identify the barriers to accessing primary care for lung cancer symptoms.•Examine the experiences of those who have had interactions. Online survey of 1000 adults and booster sample of 100 smokers 65+. Sample was quota controlled on gender, age, social class and region to ensure a representative sample. •47% identified lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer death in Ireland.•Half of Irish adults and 31% of smokers claim to be unconcerned about being diagnosed with the disease.•79% of smokers claimed to have never spoken with a doctor/pharmacist about lung health and 59% of smokers have never spoken with a doctor/pharmacist about giving up smoking.•54% said they would not go to their doctor if they had one or more symptoms of lung cancer due to obstacles like fear (22%), expense of doctor’s visit (17%), because it is not serious enough (19%).•37% of smokers would be discouraged from visiting a doctor with symptoms.•Reasons included don’t think there is much a doctor can do for their lung health (11%), worried about what they would be told (32%), too expensive (20%) and don’t want a lecture on smoking (20%). This study reveals a number of barriers to early detection of lung cancer which in turn can lead to late diagnoses. These include a lack of awareness and underestimating the severity of the disease. The cost, anxiety, and fatalistic attitude are barriers which can influence the design of a lung cancer awareness campaign. Enabling health professionals and establishing accessible services to address lung health with high risk populations in a supportive manner will improve early detection of lung cancer.

P2.08-015 Promoting Lung Cancer Awareness in Ireland - Balancing Traditional and Digital Platforms: Topic: Other

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Ireland, in both men and women*. Incidence of the disease continues to increase and the majority of Irish lung cancer patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage**. The Irish Cancer Society runs an annual lung cancer awareness campaign promoting awareness of the signs and symptoms and the importance of early detection. A variety of mediums are utilised including production of printed and online information, promotion via online and social media platforms and targeting the media through radio, TV, online advertorials and regional print advertising. In 2016, following previous success online, we replicated an interactive symptom checker developed by the Australian Lung Foundation. The purpose of this online tool was to promote lung cancer awareness and early detection, the public were encouraged to complete the checker and bring their results to their general practitioner (GP). The symptom checker was promoted through various media platforms and this ultimately lead to the success of the project. The campaign goal was 1,720 online health checker completions (25% of benchmarked lung cancer section website visitors). Result: There were 12,185 views of the checker. 3,145 people completed the checker with 2,801 downloading the result for their GPS. A strong call to action to the online checker was valuable as it gave a tangible action to the public. The media played a key role in promoting the campaign message to our targeted audience and contributed to the overall success of the campaign demonstrating the benefit of balancing traditional and digital platforms.

107: Lung cancer – You can avoid it, get it, survive it; an evaluation of the Irish Cancer Society's annual lung cancer awareness campaign from 2011 to 2013

107: Lung cancer – You can avoid it, get it, survive it; an evaluation of the Irish Cancer Society's annual lung cancer awareness campaign from 2011 to 2013

Pharmacy lung cancer awareness campaign boosts referrals to GPs

Pharmacy lung cancer awareness campaign boosts referrals to GPs

How a pharmacy-led lung cancer awareness campaign met NHS aims

How a pharmacy-led lung cancer awareness campaign met NHS aims

68 The prevalence of hyponatraemia amongst patients with newly diagnosed thoracic malignancies

Introduction: National cancer awareness campaigns have previously resulted in an increased number of referrals from primary care. They have not had an impact on early cancer diagnoses or survival. We present a comparison of demographic and epidemiological characteristics of patients from East Cheshire before and after the national lung cancer awareness campaign in 2012. Methods: A 3 month period between May and August 2012 was selected that coincided with the national campaign. A comparative period in 2011 was selected as control. Demographic and clinical information was collected from lung cancer audit data, clinic letters and radiology. Chi-squared test was used to compare the groups. Results: There was a 50% increase in referrals in 2012. The table shows comparative data between the two periods. There was a statistically significant increase in the number of males referred to the service in 2012 (p = 0.009). There was no difference between the two groups in terms of age, smoking status, duration of symptoms or A&E attendances. More patients were referred through their GP and avoided presentation to A&E in 2012 but this was not statistically significant. There was an insignificant trend to increased number of patients with performance status 3 4 in 2012. Although histology was obtained in fewer cases in 2012 following the awareness programme, more patients were offered curative treatment. Conclusions and discussion: There was a significant increase in the male-female ratio in our cohort in the 3 month period following the national awareness campaign. Whether this is coincidental or truly linked to the effect of media/publicity on males is not known. Analysis of the entire year’s data might elucidate things further. The aim of any cancer screening programme is to pick up early disease and influence mortality. This has not been demonstrated in our cohort. The proportion of patients presenting with a short duration of symptoms was similar in both groups. Curative treatment was offered more frequently in 2012 despite a larger proportion of patients with poor performance status.

85 Impact of a national Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign in Merseyside

85 Impact of a national Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign in Merseyside

P3 The national lung cancer awareness campaign: Evidence of a measurable impact in stage shift and eligibility for radical therapy

RationaleLung cancer survival in North East London is consistently lower than expected. The incidence of late presentation with advanced, inoperable disease is significantly higher; our patients are also more likely...

P5 Impact of national lung cancer awareness campaign on local referrals and outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

IntroductionIncreased awareness of lung cancer symptoms, largely due to the national ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ campaign in 2012 targeting smokers with cough more than 3 weeks, contributed to 14% increased...

52 The National Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign – a study to assess the impact on lung cancer detection and staging within a busy UK hospital trust

52 The National Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign – a study to assess the impact on lung cancer detection and staging within a busy UK hospital trust

100 The effect of the National Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign on referrals to the Rapid Access Lung Clinic

100 The effect of the National Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign on referrals to the Rapid Access Lung Clinic

P62 Early Results of a National Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign

In May 2012 a centrally funded National Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign was initiated. This campaign was influenced by encouraging results from local pilot studies, and featured news items and public...

P156 NAEDI lung cancer awareness campaign in London

BackgroundLung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in the UK. Survival rates over the last 30 years have not significantly improved. The NAEDI initiative is working to promote...

Survey of U.S. lung cancer media coverage between 1999/2000 and 2003/2004

7223 Background: In preparation for the launch of a lung cancer awareness campaign in 2000, a survey was conducted to assess media coverage for the four major cancers (breast, prostate, lung, colorectal). Results found the majority of articles addressed breast cancer, while lung cancer (the leading cancer killer) was underreported, and articles carried negative messages, were unsympathetic to patients, and focused on tobacco-related issues. With a perceived increase in lung cancer research and celebrity-supported education initiatives, a 2004 follow-up was commissioned to determine if lung cancer coverage has increased and become more positive. Methods: Research firm Carma International conducted two parallel online searches (Aug. 1999 - July 2000 and Aug. 2003 - July 2004) to retrieve systematic random samples of 600 breast, prostate, lung and colorectal stories and transcripts from national newspapers, newswires, consumer magazines, newsweeklies, and broadcast news. Content analysis included symptoms, prevention, detection, treatment, survival, research, personal accounts, events and tobacco/smoking. Coverage was analyzed by volume, story type, topics, awareness events and celebrity outreach. Results: Findings showed lung cancer coverage increased 10% (105 to 116), while breast cancer coverage decreased 10% (368 to 333). Lung cancer coverage was more positive; treatment and research references increased from 21 to 29 and 22 to 32 respectively, while tobacco/smoking references decreased from 48 to 36. Patient-focused stories addressing clinical trials and psychosocial issues increased from 4 to 18. Celebrity-focused lung cancer articles increased from 2 to 10, while celebrity breast cancer articles decreased from 35 to 10. Conclusions: There are more lung cancer articles conveying positive messages and greater celebrity involvement than at the start of the campaign. Contributing factors are likely related to celebrity involvement and coverage of new treatments. Given lung cancer’s toll, education and awareness campaigns must continue to drive coverage. A follow-up survey should be conducted to determine if this increase in positive coverage translates into less stigma and blame toward lung cancer patients. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Beermats and football programmes

Macmillan Cancer Relief and the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation have teamed up again to raise aware-ness of lung cancer through out November. Themessage for the lung cancer awareness cam-paign is Early Diagnosis Saves Lives and thou-sands of pounds will be committed topromoting the message.

O-114 Raising the public profile of lung cancer — A national lung cancer awareness campaign in the UK

O-114 Raising the public profile of lung cancer — A national lung cancer awareness campaign in the UK

E-28. Placing lung cancer on the global health care agenda: The global lung cancer coalition

In 2001 a group of twelve non-government organizations with an interest in lung cancer, spurred into action by the plight of lung cancer patients, decided to establish a Global Lung Cancer Coalition (GLCC) with the aim of: . Placing lung cancer squarely on the global health agenda l Lessening the stigma of lung cancer among patients, their families, their health care providers, policy makers and the general public . Empowering lung cancer patients and their loved ones to take a more active role in their care . Effecting change in relevant legislative and regulatory policies to optimize treatment and care of lung cancer patients [ 11. GLCC members include: . The Alliance for Lung Cancer Advocacy, Support and Education (U.S.) . The Alliance for Lung Cancer Advocacy, Support and Education Italia . Asociacion Espafiola contra el Cancer (Spain) . Australian Lung Foundation . British Lung Foundation . Canadian Lung Association . Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada l Cancer Care (U.S.) . Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation (U.S.) . La Ligue Nationale Contre Le Cancer (France) . The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation (U.K.) . West Japan Thoracic Oncology Group. The GLCC is a “virtual” organization that provides member organizations with a forum to think constructively and creatively about how to achieve their common goals. Regular teleconferences and, less frequent, face-to-face meetings have provided members with important opportunities to discuss and agree how best to optimize their combined resources and increase their capacity to fight against the discrimination and inequalities which create such unacceptable burdens for lung cancer patients worldwide. Activities to date have included the creation of a web-site (www.lungcancercoalition.org) that provides information about the coalition, details of its activities, information about lung cancer and links to member organizations’ web-sites. The GLCC has designated November as Global Lung Cancer Awareness month and in 2001 launched an international lung cancer awareness campaign with the aim of changing public perception of lung cancer, de-stigmatizing lung cancer by focusing the general public on the plight of patients and calling for better information, earlier detection, improved treatments and better quality supportive care for lung cancer patients. Coalition members optimised their limited resources by developing core campaign materials that were then customised to each member’s specific needs. A second international lung cancer awareness campaign was undertaken in November 2002 and another planned for November 2003. As part of the 2002 international lung cancer awareness campaign the GLCC launched a charter that outlines the specific problems confronted by lung cancer patients, reaffirms fundamental patient rights, and calls for health professional, government, media and public observance of lung cancer patients’ rights. The GLCC believes that if these rights are upheld, lung cancer survival rates could be improved and the burden of living with lung cancer could be significantly reduced. In the future the GLCC plans to develop a symptom checklist to promote early detection of lung cancer. Early diagnosis of lung cancer is critical to improving lung cancer survival rates and raising public awareness of the symptoms accompanying lung cancer is one means of promoting early diagnosis. By providing an easy to understand checklist, member organizations hope to lessen the misconceptions and irrational fears that surrounds lung cancer. The GLCC is also planning to develop evidence based treatment guidelines targeted at patients to help them navigate the system and ensure they are getting the most appropriate care. Lung cancer specialists can join forces with patient advocates to address the treatment shortcomings, stigma and inequities experienced by lung cancer patients world-wide. Specialists can help advocates improve their understanding of lung cancer prevention, detection and treatment. The AACR has provided leadership in this area through its “Scientist + Survivor Program” which has the goal of developing mutually beneficial partnerships between the scientific and patient advocacy community. Leading patient advocates are invited to attend the AACR annual meeting and are given the opportunity to discuss cutting-edge science with leading members of the cancer scientific community. This program has clear benefits for both scientists and advocates the advocates emerge better equipped to carry out their work and the scientists gain an understanding of issues of concern to patients and the important role advocates play in supporting research efforts. The AACR “Scientist ++ Survivor Program” is an interesting model for patient-professional group collaboration and perhaps a similar program could be established between lung cancer patient advocates and specialists. There are issues of mutual concern to lung cancer advocates and specialists including inequities in access to high quality treatment and care and insufficient research funding. Collaboration between allies to address these concerns will create a potent force capable of achieving results that are impossible to achieve when both groups work in isolation. The GLCC calls on lung cancer specialists to collaborate on both a national and a global level to raise awareness of the plight of lung cancer patients, change prejudicial attitudes and secure improvements in lung cancer detection, treatment and care.