Linda Wenger
[email protected]
(973) 449-3214
WASHINGTON, DC (September 21, 2018) — LUNGevity Foundation, the nation’s leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization, today announced that data from the groundbreaking Project Transform study on lung cancer patient preferences about what treatment outcomes matter most to them will be presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2018 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) to be held this month in Toronto. Project Transform is a collaboration between LUNGevity’s Patient-Focused Research Center (Patient FoRCe) and The Ohio State University. This study is one of four that were accepted from LUNGevity to be shared at this year’s conference.
Patient preferences now play an important role in cancer research, regulatory science, and value assessment. The goal of Project Transform is to change the paradigm in lung cancer from assumptions being made about patient wishes to evidence-based conclusions about patient need and desires. Population estimates of patient preference remain important, but more effort is needed to understand how patient preference varies across patients with different backgrounds and treatment experiences.
Project Transform quantifies patient preferences for the benefits and risks of therapy and explores how they vary across lines of treatment.
“Project Transform encompasses core principles of patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR), in line with LUNGevity’s mission of providing a voice to the lung cancer patient,” Andrea Ferris, president and CEO of LUNGevity, said. “As a leading patient advocacy group that represents the voice and interest of the national lung cancer survivor community, LUNGevity knows that it is essential to capture, analyze, and disseminate patient preferences to all stakeholders.”
Detailed results of Project Transform will be presented in Toronto as an oral presentation in the session “Towards Survivorship: The Landscape, Support, and Barriers” on September 24.
LUNGevity’s Patient-Focused Research Center (Patient FoRCe) is the organization’s in-house research institute that brings evidence-based research and scientific rigor to understanding the lived experience of people diagnosed with lung cancer. Patient FoRCE conducts, analyzes, and disseminates studies examining the perspective and voice of the patient in order to impact policy as it is developed, research as it is conducted, and treatment as decisions are made, ensuring patient centricity.
“Dissemination is important for all Patient FoRCe studies,” Dr. Upal Basu Roy, director of Patient FoRCe, said. “This ensures that relevant stakeholders—patients, caregivers, clinicians, regulators, and industry partners—are made aware of study findings and implications, with the ultimate goal of driving practice change.”
About LUNGevity Foundation
LUNGevity is the nation's leading lung cancer organization investing in lifesaving, translational research and providing support services and education for patients and caregivers. LUNGevity’s goals are three-fold: (1) accelerate research to patients, (2) empower patients to be active participants in their treatment decisions, and (3) remove barriers that patients face in accessing the right treatments.
LUNGevity Foundation is firmly committed to making an immediate impact on increasing quality of life and survivorship of people with lung cancer by accelerating research into early detection and more effective treatments, as well as by providing community, support, and education for all those affected by the disease. LUNGevity’s comprehensive resources include a medically vetted website, a toll-free HELPLine in partnership with CancerCare®, a unique Lung Cancer Navigator app, peer-to-peer mentoring for patients and caregivers (LUNGevity LifeLine), and survivorship conferences. LUNGevity also helps patients find and navigate clinical trials through our Clinical Trial Finder tool, a Clinical Trial Ambassador program, and participation with EmergingMed.
Our vision is a world where no one dies of lung cancer. For more information about LUNGevity Foundation, a four-star Charity Navigator organization, please visit www.LUNGevity.org.
About Lung Cancer in the U.S.
- About 1 in 16 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime
- More than 234,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year
- About 60%-65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers
- Lung cancer takes more lives than the next three leading cancers (colorectal, breast, and prostate) combined
- Only 19% of all people diagnosed with lung cancer will survive 5 years or more, BUT if it’s caught before it spreads, the chance of 5-year survival improves dramatically