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ALCSI is working to increase the lung cancer screening rate and help more high-risk individuals get screened through community outreach, education, and national, state, and local policy initiatives. ALCSI has given over 150 presentations on lung cancer to a wide range of audiences, including students, community members, healthcare providers, community leaders, and policymakers. To date, ALCSI has directly taught over 10,000 individuals about lung cancer screening within the United States, Canada, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Iran through community presentations. ALCSI has also worked with 157
mayors to issue proclamations recognizing November as Lung Cancer Awareness Month in Canada and every single U.S. state. Additionally, ALCSI has worked to increase awareness of lung cancer screening by partnering with YouTube channels to include lung cancer screening information in their videos. Thus far, ALCSI has reached over 7.5 million viewers on YouTube. In addition, ALCSI recently started a podcast series to provide a platform for lung cancer survivors, advocates, and experts to share their experiences with lung cancer. ALCSI has had the honor to talk with over 20 patients and doctors.
ALCSI is also working to engage youth in the effort to increase awareness of lung cancer and lung cancer screening. ALCSI has established 27 chapters at universities in the U.S. and Canada, from Rice University in Houston, Texas to Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts and University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. The ALCSI university chapters regularly give community presentations and hold community canvassing events year long in their local communities. At these events, members of ALCSI teach community members about lung cancer screening and connect community members who are potentially eligible for screening to their local lung cancer screening clinic.
In addition to ALCSI’s community outreach, ALCSI also works with policymakers to increase awareness of and access to lung cancer screening. In 2020, ALCSI worked with U.S. congress members and senators to draft and advocate for the first-ever House (H.R. 1192) and Senate (S.780) resolutions recognizing the importance of the early detection of lung cancer through screening. In December 2020, the Senate Resolution ALCSI helped draft and advocate for was passed, marking the first time the U.S. Senate has ever recognized the importance of screening. Since then, ALCSI has worked with the U.S. Senate to draft and advocate for a resolution recognizing November 2021 as National Lung Cancer Awareness Month and expressing support for the early detection of lung cancer, and ALCSI is currently working with the U.S. House and Senate to draft a similar resolution for this upcoming November.
ALCSI has also actively been working with Representative Brendan Boyle and Senator Tina Smith to draft and advocate for Katherine’s Law for Lung Cancer Early Detection and Survival Act of 2021 (H.R. 3749). This bill proposes to expand eligibility for screening so that more high-risk Americans will have access to life-saving screening. Most recently, ALCSI is currently working on an initiative with Congress to get a notice about lung cancer screening added to cigarette packs.
Lung cancer has historically been characterized by late-stage diagnoses and poor prognoses.
Broad implementation of lung cancer screening for individuals at high-risk is an avenue of hope to reduce lung cancer mortality and increase the number of lung cancer survivors. By engaging youth and teaching communities around the world about the importance of early detection of lung cancer through screening, we can greatly increase the number of high-risk adults getting screened for lung cancer. If you are interested in joining ALCSI and helping with its initiatives, contact [email protected]. If you are unsure whether you should get screened for lung cancer, take this quick and free lung cancer eligibility assessment at https://redcap.partners.org/redcap/surveys/?s=3EW9N7FPNXAEKJYK, and share it with family and friends. To learn more about ALCSI or lung cancer screening, please visit www.alcsi.org.
References:
1. Siegel DA, Fedewa SA, Henley SJ, Pollack LA, Jemal A. Proportion of Never Smokers Among Men and Women With Lung Cancer in 7 US States. JAMA Oncol. 2021 Feb 1;7(2):302-304. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.6362. PMID: 33270100; PMCID: PMC7716251.
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3. de Koning, H. J., et al. (2020). Reduced Lung-Cancer Mortality with Volume CT Screening in a Randomized Trial. The New England journal of medicine, 382(6), 503–513. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1911793
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5. Early detection. Early Detection. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2022, from https://progressreport.cancer.gov/detection
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