Author: Daniel A. Saez, MSc, Treatment and Trials Navigator, GO2 for Lung Cancer

This month, the GO2 for Lung Cancer team virtually attended IASLC’s 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer. Our science and research team provided strong representation for the organization and the lung cancer community through a combination of presentations, involvement as chairs and discussants, and contributions as co-authors on talks by international collaborators.

Oral Presentations

GO2 for Lung Cancer’s own Rashmi Acharya, MS, Science and Research Specialist, and Daniel Saez, MSc, Treatment and Trials Navigator, were invited to give oral presentations. Acharya’s talk, titled Impact of COVID-19 on Lung Cancer Care and Utilization of Patient Support, described how the COVID-19 pandemic affected lung cancer screening and diagnosis in our Centers of Excellence (COE) network, as well as how patient and health care provider (HCP) usage of GO2 for Lung Cancer resources changed in response to the pandemic. She was able to demonstrate that more than half of COEs, as represented by the sample used, had lower diagnoses of lung cancer than prior to the pandemic and expressed concern for delays in both diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer as long-term impacts of the pandemic. Acharya also showed data that patient appetite for GO2 for Lung Cancer resources decreased due to the pandemic as measured by patient and caregiver contact for our free HelpLine service. Lastly, HCP requests for printed materials were also negatively affected.

Saez’s talk, How LungMATCH, A Personalized Treatment Navigation and Clinical Trial Matching Service, Affects the Treatment Journey, focused on a three-year analysis of GO2 for Lung Cancer’s unique patient and caregiver navigation program, LungMATCH. LungMATCH is GO2’s unique concierge-style treatment and trial navigation program where patients and caregivers can talk to trained navigators about the lung cancer treatment landscape and how it is relevant uniquely to them. Saez’s talk demonstrated that patients who received support for treatment and clinical trial navigation through LungMATCH had higher than average rates of biomarker testing, precision medicine use (as measured by targeted therapy and/or immunotherapy use), and clinical trial accrual in 2020. In addition to the higher-than-average markers for good lung cancer care in 2020, Saez was able to show that these numbers increased year over year from 2018-2020. Acharya credited Andrew Ciupek, PhD, Senior Manager of Clinical Research, Miranda Goff, LICSW, Manager of Support Services, Leah Fine, Senior Director of Excellence in Screening and Care, and Jennifer King, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer as co-authors of her talk. Saez credited Rashmi Acharya, MS, Andrew Ciupek, PhD, and Jennifer King as co-authors of his talk.

Poster Presentations

GO2 for Lung Cancer was also invited to present two featured posters. The first was presented by Andrew Ciupek, PhD, Senior Manager, Clinical Research, titled Factors Associated with Delayed Lung Cancer Diagnosis. Ciupek’s poster used the Lung Cancer Registry to analyze time to diagnosis for patients and identifiable factors that influence it. The data presented by Ciupek highlights that patients who were diagnosed by their primary care physician, nurse practitioner, or a physician’s assistant were more likely to be diagnosed in longer than three months if they presented symptoms. However, patients diagnosed in an ER setting had the opposite experience and were more likely to be diagnosed in three months or less. Ciupek went on to explain that patients who were diagnosed in longer than three months were likely to have been treated for other chronic conditions such as asthma or allergies.

Ciupek credited Jennifer King, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Jacinta Wiens, PhD, Director of the Lung Cancer Registry, as co-authors in his poster. Jennifer King, PhD presented a featured poster titled The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Lung Cancer Screening Programs in the United States. King’s poster quantified the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on screening rates in GO2 for Lung Cancer’s Screening Centers of Excellence (SCOE) network, in comparison to screening rates prior to the pandemic. SCOEs demonstrated an almost ubiquitous decrease in screening during the pandemic for both new patients and patients returning for regular scans. King also highlighted that 85% of SCOEs went on a hiatus of at least 5 weeks during the pandemic, and these centers reported that their main challenge for rebuilding screening volumes were related to patient concern for safety. King credited Angela Criswell, MA, Director of Quality Screening and Program Initiatives, Leah Fine, Senior Director of Excellence in Screening and Care, and Robin Mohon, Excellence in Screening and Care Specialist as co-authors in her poster.

Additional Contributions

In addition to oral presentations and featured posters, GO2 for Lung Cancer’s team played a role in the 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer as co-authors on oral presentations from other organizations as well as track chairs and discussants. Jennifer King, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, was credited as a co-author on two oral presentations titled Analysis of Lung Cancer Patients Receiving SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines Revealed a Minority Subset With Poor Antibody Responses Relative to Controls and A Thoracic Cancers International COVID 19 Collaboration Survey on Patients’ Perceptions of COVID-19 (Teravolt-Paper). She was also a discussant for the Using Real World and Patient Reported Data to Identify Gaps and Needs for People with Lung Cancer: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Treatment Patterns, and Psychosocial Impacts section.

Maureen Rigney, LICSW, Senior Director, Support Initiatives, was credited as a co-author on two oral presentations titled Considering the Continued Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patient Advocacy and Support Organisations and Considering the Continued Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patient Advocacy and Support Organisations.

In addition to his poster presentation, Andrew Ciupek, PhD, Senior Manager, Clinical Research, was asked to be a chair for the Patient Advocacy track. Bonnie Addario, Co-Founder and Board Chair of GO2 for Lung Cancer was asked to be the chair for the Meet the Expert – Relationship Between IASLC and Advocates/IASLC’s Efforts to Push Advocacy Forward Including Consideration of Innovation, AI, and Personalized Medicine to Benefit Patients with Cancer session.

Our diverse presence and contribution to this year’s World Conference on Lung Cancer doubles down on our commitment to patient advocacy and our involvement in the entirety of the lung cancer landscape. Learn more about WCLC key takeaways and team contributions on our blog.