scholarly journals Feasibility and acceptability of a community pharmacy referral service for suspected lung cancer symptoms

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e000772
Author(s):  
Daniella Holland-Hart ◽  
Grace M McCutchan ◽  
Harriet Dorothy Quinn-Scoggins ◽  
Kate Brain ◽  
Lucy Hill ◽  
...  

BackgroundLung cancer survival rates in the UK are among the lowest in Europe, principally due to late-stage diagnosis. Alternative routes to earlier diagnosis of lung cancer are needed in socioeconomically deprived communities that are disproportionately affected by poor lung cancer outcomes. We assessed the feasibility and acceptability of a community-based pharmacy referral service to encourage earlier symptomatic referral for chest X-rays.MethodsSeventeen community pharmacies located in a deprived area of Wales participated between March 2019 and March 2020. Stakeholder interviews were conducted with four patients, seven pharmacy professionals and one general practitioner. Four focus groups were conducted, including one with healthcare professionals (n=6) and three with members of the public who were current and former smokers (n=13). Quantitative data regarding patient characteristics and clinical outcomes were collected from hospital records and patient referral questionnaires completed by pharmacists and analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data sets were analysed thematically and triangulated.ResultsTwelve patients used the pharmacy referral service, all of whom were male. Average length of the pharmacy consultation was 13 min, with a mean 3 days to accessing chest X-rays in secondary care. Patients experienced a mean 46-day wait for results, with no lung cancer detected. Participants found the service to be acceptable and considered the pharmacy element to be broadly feasible. Perceived barriers included low awareness of the service and concerns about the role and capacity of pharmacists to deliver the service. Facilitators included perceived approachability and accessibility of pharmacists. A well-publicised, multifaceted awareness campaign was recommended.ConclusionsA community pharmacy referral service for lung symptoms was considered an acceptable alternative pathway to symptomatic diagnosis of lung cancer in deprived communities. Wider implementation of the service would require workforce capacity and training to be addressed to ensure optimum utilisation and promotion of the service.

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 107327481983608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaida Gedvilaitė ◽  
Edvardas Danila ◽  
Saulius Cicėnas ◽  
Giedrė Smailytė

Lung cancer is the most common cancer-related death worldwide. The aim of this study is to describe the most recent survival rates by sex, age group, extent of disease, and histology of lung cancer in Lithuania. The study is based on the Lithuanian Cancer Registry database. The analysis included patients with primary invasive lung cancer diagnosed in 1998 to 2012 (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision C33 and C34). Patients were followed up with respect to vital status until December 31, 2012. Five-year relative survival estimates were calculated using period analysis. Relative survival was calculated as the ratio of the observed survival of patients with cancer and the expected survival of the underlying general population. In our study, the overall 5-year relative survival was low but increased slightly (10.7%) from 2003–2007 to 2008–2012. Positive changes in survival were evident in both sexes, in almost all age groups and for all histological groups and disease stages. Adenocarcinoma relative survival increased from 6.7% in 2003–2007 to 12.8% in 2008–2012 and squamous cell carcinoma increased from 7.4% in 2003–2007 to 11.1% in 2008–2012. Patients with small-cell carcinoma had the worst survival (2.9% in 2003-2007 and 3.6% in 2008–2012). The majority of patients with lung cancer are diagnosed with advanced disease. The number of new cases of advanced lung cancer increased from 35.1% to 37.8%. Despite low overall survival, there were positive changes in survival in both sexes, in almost all age groups, and for all histological groups and disease stages. The survival rate of patients with lung cancer in Lithuania is similar to that in other European countries.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Du ◽  
Piping Gong ◽  
Yun Zhang ◽  
Yanguo Liu ◽  
Xiaozhen Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with an estimated 1.2 million deaths each year. Despite advances in lung cancer treatment, 5-year survival rates are lower than ~15%, which is attributes to diagnosis limitations and current clinical drug resistance. Recently, more evidence has suggested that epigenome dysregulation is associated with the initiation and progress of cancer, and targeting epigenome-related molecules improves cancer symptoms. Interestingly, some groups reported that the level of methylation of histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4me3) was increased in lung tumors and participated in abnormal transcriptional regulation. However, a mechanistic analysis is not available. In this report, we found that the SET domain containing 1A (SETD1A), the enzyme for H3K4me3, was elevated in lung cancer tissue compared to normal lung tissue. Knockdown of SETD1A in A549 and H1299 cells led to defects in cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), as evidenced by inhibited WNT and TGFβ pathways, compared with the control group. Xenograft assays also revealed a decreased tumor growth and EMT in the SETD1A silenced group compared with the control group. Mechanistic analysis suggested that SETD1A might regulate tumor progression via several critical oncogenes, which exhibited enhanced H3K4me3 levels around transcriptional start sites in lung cancer. This study illustrates the important role of SETD1A in lung cancer and provides a potential drug target for treatment.


2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 214-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Patel

In 2003, approximately 21,000 new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed across Canada. Nearly 19,000 Canadians died of this devastating disease that year (1). Worldwide, there are over one million cases identified annually (2). In the Western world, more patients die of lung cancer than from breast, prostate and colon cancer combined. Despite these figures, lung cancer has remained low on the health care agenda. In the past three decades, there has been little improvement in observed lung cancer survival rates, with overall five-year survival rates approaching 15% (3).


2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (9) ◽  
pp. 1642-1646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire A. Butler ◽  
Karen M. Darragh ◽  
Graeme P. Currie ◽  
Wendy J.A. Anderson

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Du ◽  
Xiuwen Wang ◽  
Piping Gong ◽  
Yun Zhang ◽  
Yanguo Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with an estimated 1.2 million deaths each year. Despite advances in lung cancer treatment, 5-year survival rates are lower than ~ 15%, which is attributed to diagnosis limitations and current clinical drug resistance. Recently, more evidence has suggested that epigenome dysregulation is associated with the initiation and progress of cancer, and targeting epigenome-related molecules improves cancer symptoms. Interestingly, some groups reported that the level of methylation of histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4me3) was increased in lung tumors and participated in abnormal transcriptional regulation. However, a mechanistic analysis is not available. In this report, we found that the SET domain containing 1A (SETD1A), the enzyme for H3K4me3, was elevated in lung cancer tissue compared to normal lung tissue. Knockdown of SETD1A in A549 and H1299 cells led to defects in cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), as evidenced by inhibited WNT and TGFβ pathways, compared with the control group. Xenograft assays also revealed a decreased tumor growth and EMT in the SETD1A silenced group compared with the control group. Mechanistic analysis suggested that SETD1A might regulate tumor progression via several critical oncogenes, which exhibited enhanced H3K4me3 levels around transcriptional start sites in lung cancer. This study illustrates the important role of SETD1A in lung cancer and provides a potential drug target for treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Bogos ◽  
Zoltan Kiss ◽  
Lilla Tamási ◽  
Gyula Ostoros ◽  
Veronika Müller ◽  
...  

Objective: Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide and its survival is still poor. The objective of our study was to estimate long-term survival of Hungarian lung cancer patients at first time based on a nationwide review of the National Health Insurance Fund database.Methods: Our retrospective, longitudinal study included patients aged ≥20 years who were diagnosed with lung cancer (ICD-10 C34) between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2016. Survival rates were evaluated by year of diagnosis, patient gender and age, and morphology of lung cancer.Results: 41,854 newly diagnosed lung cancer patients were recorded. Mean age at diagnosis varied between 64.7 and 65.9 years during study period. One- and 5-year overall survival rates for the total population were 42.2 and 17.9%, respectively. Survival was statistically associated with gender, age and type of lung cancer. Female patients (n = 16,362) had 23% better survival (HR: 0.77, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.75–0.79; p < 0.001) than males (n = 25,492). The highest survival rates were found in the 20–49 age cohort (5Y = 31.3%) and if the cancer type was adenocarcinoma (5Y = 20.5%). We measured 5.3% improvement (9.2% adjusted) in lung cancer survival comparing the period 2015–2016 to 2011–2012 (HR: 0.95 95% CI: 0.92–0.97; p = 0.003), the highest at females <60 year (0.86 (adjusted HR was 0.79), interaction analysis was significant for age and histology types.Conclusion: Our study provided long-term Lung cancer survival data in Hungary for the first time. We found a 5.3% improvement in 5-year survival in 4 years. Women and young patients had better survival. Survival rates were comparable to–and at the higher end of–rates registered in other East-Central European countries (7.7%–15.7%).


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