IASLC Discusses Lung Cancer Care and Research Disparities

IASLC discusses lung cancer care and research disparities. Several leading international lung cancer researchers at a press today presented compelling new data revealing that factors of race, gender, sexual orientation and income continue to be significant barriers to those living with lung cancer. The press briefing is part of the IASLC’s World Conference on Lung Cancer 2020 Singapore.

The press briefing was moderated by IASLC Communications Committee Chair Dr. Anne-Marie Baird, senior research fellow at Trinity College in Dublin and president of Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE), a nonprofit that aims to provide a voice for people impacted by lung cancer in Europe. Patient Research Advocate Jill Feldman, co-founder of the patient advocacy group, The EGFR Resisters, will contribute insights from the advocacy community’s perspective.

Earlier this year, Ms. Feldman co-authored an article for IASLC Lung Cancer News, in which it was noted that, “[c]ontemporaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the already existing health inequities in underserved populations [in the United States]. It is well documented that Black patients, Indigenous People, patients of Pacific island descent, and Hispanic patients are 3.7 times, 3.5 times, 3.1 times, and 2.8 times, respectively, more like to succumb to COVID-19, than White patients.(1) These disparities cannot be explained by differences in income alone.(2) It is, therefore, very likely that the pandemic will only exacerbate lung cancer health care delivery gaps in these already disenfranchised communities.”