What is LCFA’s Role in Lung Cancer Advocacy? 

At the end of February, I was invited to attend the Inaugural Patient Advocate Workshop for Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA) in Marina Del Rey, California. For its Inaugural workshop, LCFA invited a small group of advocates to participate in a very special two days. We heard updates on important topics in lung cancer such as biomarkers, liquid biopsies, and immunotherapy from leaders in oncology learned about the important work done by LCFA and participated in valuable media training to maximize our social media presence and improve the effectiveness of our public speaking.

Gathering advocates together

All of the advocates, myself included, who attended the Inaugural Workshop are part of LCFA’s Speakers Bureau. LCFA puts a huge emphasis on getting lung cancer advocates in front of the television, radio, and other media outlets to improve public awareness of lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer death. This is why the media training at the workshop was so valuable!

Here’s a picture of myself and my fellow advocates at the workshop holding up fingers to show how long we’ve been living with lung cancer!

Are you familiar with LCFA?

In case you’re not familiar with LCFA, let me tell you a little about the foundation and its mission. LCFA was founded in 2007 by two lung cancer survivors and a lung cancer widow and focuses on raising funds to accelerate innovative lung cancer research. To date, LCFA has funded almost $3.5 billion in lung cancer research in partnership with the IASLC (International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer). To learn more about LCFA, check out the LCFA website.

LCFA has a strong commitment to supporting Young Investigators with grant funding in order to attract and keep the best and brightest young researchers working in the lung cancer field. By helping researchers in the early part of their careers with their projects. LCFA strives to keep talented Young Investigators from moving to other cancers and diseases that might have more generous federal funding. This is critically important to the future of lung cancer discoveries and treatments.

“Hope with Answers” series

Recently, LCFA has launched a fantastic series of short videos to educate patients and caregivers and help them understand more about lung cancer diagnoses, tests, and treatments. This series is called “Hope with Answers” and consists of conversations between patients and oncologists discussing important lung cancer topics in easily accessible language. There are three different levels of videos — intro, intermediate, and in-depth — on a variety of topics such as early detection, staging, biomarker testing, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, surgery, and many more. Intro videos are designed for newly diagnosed patients and caregivers, while intermediate and in-depth videos cater to patients further along in their journey.

Please visit the "Hope with Answers" website to watch these videos. You might even see a few featuring me and some other familiar faces in the lung cancer community!

Editor’s Note: We are extremely saddened to say that on June 23, 2024, Ivy Elkins passed away. Ivy’s advocacy efforts and writing continue to reach many. She will be deeply missed.