scholarly journals 1K4Cancer Breaks the Silence: A Crowd-Funding Campaign by Sebeccly Cancer Care

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement 2) ◽  
pp. 184s-184s
Author(s):  
A. Udoh ◽  
O. Salako ◽  
V. Okafor

Amount raised: The 1K4Cancer campaign raised a total of $18,099. Background and context: Poverty, chronicity of spending, paying out-of-pocket for health care needs, and the prohibitive cost of cancer drugs are some of the reasons cancer patients don't start or complete treatment. Over 90% of Nigerian cancer patients pay for healthcare expenses out-of-pocket; putting a heavy strain on their finances and those of their caregivers. Sebeccly is a cancer charity that enables cancer care access to indigent cancer patients through several fundraising modalities, one of which is the 1K4Cancer. The campaign is a cancer drug fund and crowd fundraiser that appeals for a minimum donation worth $2.50. Launched in October 2012 (for 3 months), and relaunched in March 2018, 1K4Cancer provides treatment aid to breast cancer patients. Aim: To raise funds and provide access to cancer care to indigent breast cancer patients. Strategy/Tactics: The 1K4Cancer campaign reaches out to individuals/organizations by leveraging on social media, relationship management with donors and several 1K4Cancer ambassadors to engage networks to raise funds to support cancer treatment and screening services. This strategy has an online and offline component, with the offline driving the online component. Program process: The 1K4Cancer runs under 7 broad categories: Community events: Focus on advocacy and education on cancer prevention and early detection. Health talks and the 1K4Cancer appeal are delivered during community outreaches. Online community engagements: partnerships with online blogs and influencers to promote the campaign were secured. The social media community was engaged in heartwarming messages and call-to-action statements to support indigent cancer patients. Media partnership: partnerships with online and traditional media houses were secured. The 1K4Cancer message was published on several eminent blogs. Relationship management with donors: past and prospective donors were engaged to promote the campaign. 1K4Cancer remains transparent and accountable through an online monthly newsletter. Donation collection: donations were made through online bank transfer and Sebeccly's online donation platforms. Volunteers: recruitment of 1K4Cancer volunteers who helped to promote and create more awareness about the campaign offline. Partnerships with hospitals: the beneficiaries of the campaign receive cancer care at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. Costs and returns: $2715 has been spent on online adverts, branding materials, creatives, publications, administrative charges, and logistics. Total returns so far: $15,384. What was learned: Leveraging on goodwill, accountability, the Internet, and a compelling story are necessary ingredients to a crowd-funding campaign. The 1K4Cancer is an innovative crowd-funding campaign that relieves the financial burden of cancer patients and help achieve access to quality cancer care.

2015 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 383-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Popoola Abiodun ◽  
Samira Makanjuola ◽  
Sowunmi Anthonia ◽  
Igwilo Adaeze ◽  
Mobolaji Oludara ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 152 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S139-S139
Author(s):  
Sina Iyiola ◽  
Enweani Ifeoma ◽  
Anthony Ngokere ◽  
Godwin Avwioro ◽  
Akinwumi Komolafe

Abstract Objectives Nigeria has one of the highest morbidity rates from breast cancer; therefore, this work examined the proliferation rate of breast cancer and the hospital presentation time lag among women in Osun State, Nigeria. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out in Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife and Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Oshogbo, Nigeria. The request cards and tissue blocks were sorted from the year 2014 to 2017. The time lag it took the patients to report at the hospitals was retrieved from the request cards. The breast tissue blocks were sectioned, stained with H&E, and graded. A representative tissue block was selected for each patient. Sections obtained from the blocks were stained with Mki67 antibody using a diaminobenzidine horseradish peroxidase technique. The cells were semiquantitatively scored as percentage of tumor cells stained brown. The mean ± SD was calculated. Results Out of 240 breast cancer patients sampled, 6 (2.5%), 97 (40.4), and 137 (57.1%), respectively, were grades 1, 2, and 3. The mean value of MKi67 was 23.90 ± 20.38, median 16.00. The mean value for grade 2 cancer was 15.31 ± 14.34; grade 3 cancer was 37.95 ± 22.47. Only 21.9% of breast cancer patients came to clinic within 3 months of lumps awareness in their breasts while 64.5% attended clinic after 6 months. Conclusions Breast cancer among the Osun State women was not very aggressive when comparing the Mki67 values obtained in this study with the values obtained in the developed world. Greater percentages of women with breast cancer waited too long before presenting themselves at the hospital. Thus, a high morbidity rate was recorded.


Author(s):  
Usman Malami Aliyu ◽  
Musa Ali-Gombe

Introduction: Early detection of bone metastases is helpful in the treatment of breast cancer. Change in serum levels of alkaline phosphatase could assist diagnosis and follow-up of metastatic breast cancer. Aim: This study aimed to determine the clinical correlates of serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels in breast cancer patients with bone metastases seen in the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Nigeria. Material and Methods: All breast cancer patients’ case note seen at the department of Radiotherapy and Oncology Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto from January 2012 to January 2017 were retrieved. The Information extracted include age, pre-treatment serum ALP, presence or absence of met


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athira B ◽  
Josette Jones ◽  
Sumam Mary Idicula ◽  
Anand Kulanthaivel ◽  
Enming Zhang

Abstract The widespread influence of social media impacts every aspect of life, including the healthcare sector. Although medics and health professionals are the final decision makers, the advice and recommendations obtained from fellow patients are significant. In this context, the present paper explores the topics of discussion posted by breast cancer patients and survivors on online forums. The study examines an online forum, Breastcancer.org, maps the discussion entries to several topics, and proposes a machine learning model based on a classification algorithm to characterize the topics. To explore the topics of breast cancer patients and survivors, approximately 1000 posts are selected and manually labeled with annotations. In contrast, millions of posts are available to build the labels. A semi-supervised learning technique is used to build the labels for the unlabeled data; hence, the large data are classified using a deep learning algorithm. The deep learning algorithm BiLSTM with BERT word embedding technique provided a better f1-score of 79.5%. This method is able to classify the following topics: medication reviews, clinician knowledge, various treatment options, seeking and providing support, diagnostic procedures, financial issues and implications for everyday life. What matters the most for the patients is coping with everyday living as well as seeking and providing emotional and informational support. The approach and findings show the potential of studying social media to provide insight into patients' experiences with cancer like critical health problems.


2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1008-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenchi Liang ◽  
Caroline B. Burnett ◽  
Julia H. Rowland ◽  
Neal J. Meropol ◽  
Lynne Eggert ◽  
...  

PURPOSE: To identify factors associated with patient-physician communication and to examine the impact of communication on patients’ perception of having a treatment choice, actual treatment received, and satisfaction with care among older breast cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected from 613 pairs of surgeons and their older (≥ 67 years) patients diagnosed with localized breast cancer. Measures of patients’ self-reported communication included physician- and patient-initiated communication and the number of treatment options discussed. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between communication and outcomes. RESULTS: Patients who reported that their surgeons mentioned more treatment options were 2.21 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.62 to 3.01) more likely to report being given a treatment choice, and 1.33 times (95% CI, 1.02 to 1.73) more likely to get breast-conserving surgery with radiation than other types of treatment. Surgeons who were trained in surgical oncology, or who treated a high volume of breast cancer patients (≥ 75% of practice), were more likely to initiate communication with patients (odds ratio [OR] = 1.62; 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.56; and OR = 1.68; 95% CI, 1.01 to 2.76, respectively). A high degree of physician-initiated communication, in turn, was associated with patients’ perception of having a treatment choice (OR = 2.46; 95% CI, 1.29 to 4.70), and satisfaction with breast cancer care (OR = 2.13; 95% CI, 1.17 to 3.85) in the 3 to 6 months after surgery. CONCLUSION: Greater patient-physician communication was associated with a sense of choice, actual treatment, and satisfaction with care. Technical information and caring components of communication impacted outcomes differently. Thus, the quality of cancer care for older breast cancer patients may be improved through interventions that improve communication within the physician-patient dyad.


2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
pp. 620-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena P. Lamb ◽  
F. Elizabeth Pritchard ◽  
Simonne S. Nouer ◽  
Elizabeth A. Tolley ◽  
Brandon S. Boyd ◽  
...  

Although significant progress has been made in improving breast cancer survival, disparities among racial, ethnic, and underserved groups still exist. The goal of this investigation is to quantify racial disparities in the context of breast cancer care, examining the outcomes of recurrence and mortality in the city of Memphis. Patients with a biopsy-proven diagnosis of breast cancer from January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2012, were obtained from the tumor registry. Black patients were more likely to have advanced (II, III, or IV) clinical stage of breast cancer at diagnosis versus white patients. Black breast cancer patients had a two times higher odds of recurrence (95% confidence interval: 1.4, 3.0) after adjusting for race and clinical stage. Black breast cancer patients were 1.5 times more likely to die (95% confidence interval: 1.2, 1.8), after adjusting for race; age at diagnosis; clinical stage; ER, PR, HER2 status; and recurrence. Black women with stages 0, I, II, and III breast cancer all had a statistically significant longer median time from diagnosis to surgery than white women. Black patients were more likely to have advanced clinical stages of breast cancer at diagnosis versus white patients on a citywide level in Memphis. Black breast cancer patients have higher odds of recurrence and mortality when compared with white breast cancer patients, after adjusting for appropriate demographic and clinical attributes. More work is needed to develop, evaluate, and disseminate interventions to decrease inequities in timeliness of care for breast cancer patients.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chumei Huang ◽  
Zhuangjian Ye ◽  
Jianxin Wan ◽  
Jianbo Liang ◽  
Min Liu ◽  
...  

Purpose. Secreted frizzled-related protein 2 (sFRP2) is a secreted protein associated with cancer drug resistance and metastasis. However, few studies have reported serum sFRP2 levels in breast cancer. We evaluated serum sFRP2 as a potential biomarker for breast cancer. Methods. Serum sFRP2 concentrations were detected in 274 breast cancer patients along with 147 normal healthy controls by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Diagnostic significance was evaluated by area under the curve (AUC) analysis and the Youden index. Prognostic significance was determined by Kaplan-Meier survival method and univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model analyses. Results. Serum sFRP2 was elevated in breast cancer patients compared to normal healthy controls (P<0.001). The sensitivity of sFRP2 in diagnosing breast cancer was 76.9% at a specificity of 76.6%. Elevated serum sFRP2 levels are associated with primary tumor size, TNM stage, and lymph node metastases. The Kaplan-Meier curves showed a significant association of serum sFRP2 with progression-free survival. The multivariate Cox analysis confirmed that high serum sFRP2 was an independent prognostic factor for poor prognosis (HR=3.89, 95% CI=1.95-7.68, P=0.001). Conclusions. In conclusion, serum sFRP2 may serve as a potential biomarker for breast cancer diagnosis and prognostic evaluation.


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