Lung Cancer Navigator for People Impacted by Lung Cancer

The American Lung Association's Lung Cancer Navigator provides information and resources to help them through their lung cancer journey.

If you have cancer, the day you finish treatment is an occasion you look forward to from the moment you’re diagnosed. Sometimes the end of chemotherapy is celebrated with balloons, signs and meaningful events like ringing a bell. But for many people with lung cancer, there is no end to treatment. Lung cancer treatment has greatly advanced in the last decade and some lung cancer patients stay on immunotherapy, targeted therapy, maintenance therapy or in a clinical trial (or some combination of those treatments), for years to keep the cancer controlled.

About the Lung Cancer Navigator

If you have been in treatment for years or even just a few months, you have different needs than someone who is newly diagnosed. That’s why the American Lung Association developed new information and resources specifically for lung cancer patients in treatment. The Lung Cancer Navigator guides users to the most important information and resources for where they are in their lung cancer journey.¹ The Navigator features pathways to information for people concerned they might have lung cancer, newly diagnosed patients, patients who have completed treatment, lung cancer caregivers and now for people who are currently in lung cancer treatment.

This new pathway of information touches on important topics like making treatment decisions if your current treatment stops working. It provides guidance on how to best manage ongoing side effects, which can be particularly challenging for patients in long-term treatment. It also addresses the emotional side effects, another challenge for patients in treatment. Lastly, the pathway offers information about planning for the future. While the topics of disability, advance directives, and wills aren’t always pleasant to think about, planning can ease stress in the future.

Helpful Decision-Making Resources

Perhaps most importantly, not only does the new pathway touch on all of these important topics, it links patients with helpful resources. One example is the Treatment Decision-Making Worksheet and Plan, a shared-decision making resource that encourages patients and doctors to have meaningful discussions about lung cancer treatment.² All too often patients aren’t aware of the goal of a certain treatment and doctors aren’t aware of what is important to patients when they are on treatment. Before a patient makes any decisions, they should look at all of the options, the goals of each treatment option and with their doctor, decide which is the best fit. The Treatment Decision-Making Worksheet and Plan allows patients to do just that and should be used every time a patient has to make a decision about treatment.

You don’t need to face lung cancer treatment alone. The more you know about what questions to ask, what you can expect and how to cope, the easier it will be during this stressful time in your life. Visit Lung.org/lung-cancer and select the “in treatment” pathway from the Navigator to start connecting with important information specifically tailored to you.