Abstract 3340: Lung cancer stigma: A ten year look at public attitudes about lung cancer

Abstract

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States in both men and women (ACS Facts and Figures, 2018). The presence of lung cancer stigma is well documented (Chapple et al, 2004; Chambers et al, 2012; Marlow et al, 2015) and has been shown to impact the care and treatment of lung cancer survivors (Tod et al. 2008; Carter-Harris et al 2014). In 2008, a large survey of over 1000 members of the general population revealed that most participants felt lung cancer was principally caused by external factors, that it was preventable, and that lung cancer patients were at least partly to blame for their illness (Weiss et al. 2014; 2017). We replicated the survey to understand whether perceptions have changed over the last decade. Methods: 1001 members of the general public were surveyed with the identical survey instrument from 2008 survey along with three additional questions at the end. The survey was carried out by phone and online between June 6 and July 26, 2018. Statistical analysis was performed comparing 2008 and 2018 datasets using paired t-tests if normally distributed or Mann-Whitney U tests for continuous data and Chi-squared or Fisher’s exact test for categorical data. Results: General awareness about lung cancer has significantly improved over the last decade with 94% of the public reporting familiarity with lung cancer (p Conclusions: After a decade of research progress in lung cancer, these data show that lung cancer awareness has been considerably elevated. Unfortunately, they also indicate that the stigma surrounding the disease remains pervasive. This work underscores the need to address stigma with proactive multilevel approaches (Hamann, 2018). Citation Format: Maureen Rigney, Eleni Rapsomaniki, Jennifer C. King. Lung cancer stigma: A ten year look at public attitudes about lung cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3340.