NEWS

Organizations Seek Spotlight for Lung Cancer Awareness

Renee Twombly

There are no celebrity spokesmen to offer comfort to a patient newly diagnosed with lung cancer. Lung cancer support groups are not very visible. Little is written about the disease in the press, and, until recently, there were no Web sites devoted to lung cancer patients.

Yet lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in America. With more than 157,000 deaths expected this year, more people succumb to lung cancer than to breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers combined. It kills more women than both breast and ovarian cancer, yet there are no fancy balls to support the plight of these patients.

But if Diane Blum has anything to do with it, that will change. Blum, director of Cancer Care Inc., New York, a nonprofit cancer support agency, has taken on lung cancer as a public relations mission.

Working with the Oncology Nursing Society and the Wellness Community, Blum first dug out the facts—that lung cancer is seriously underreported in the media—and presented it at this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In a random analysis of 600 cancer stories, Blum and her colleagues found that only 9% focused on lung cancer outside of tobacco litigation and smoking issues. Comparatively, 61% reported on breast cancer, and 23% focused on prostate cancer.

Then, joining with the Chest Foundation, the partners devised a multifaceted information program that will culminate in a nationwide lung cancer awareness week Nov. 12–17. The group is trying to educate the media and the public about lung cancer, screening, treatment advances, and supportive care issues. Among other free services that have been made available are a Web site (http://www.lungcancer.org) and a toll-free hotline (877-646-LUNG) to speak to cancer nurses or social workers.

But focusing the public on lung cancer will be a challenge, Blum and others involved acknowledged. Because more than 90% of lung cancers are smoking-related, patients are often stigmatized. Celebrities do not want others to know they have the disease, even if they survive, which is rare because 95% of patients diagnosed with lung cancer die from it.

The message should not be one of blame, but of support, Blum said. "We are trying to bring attention to how common the disease is," she said. "Many patients diagnosed with lung cancer are not even referred to a medical oncologist, but they should be. They are patients with a disease and deserve care."

No one knows that better than Karen Parles, a 42-year-old Long Island, N.Y., non-smoker who was diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer 3 years ago. It had spread outside her lung, and she was told chemotherapy would buy her 2 years at most. She found few online resources and no helpful patient groups. "This is the number one cancer killer, yet there was no public support because of the cancer’s relationship to smoking," she said.

As it turned out, Parles successfully underwent an extrapleural pneumonectomy and this mother now devotes her time to a Web site she created and maintains (http://Lungcanceronline.org) so that other lung cancer patients "have somewhere to turn."



             
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