Lung Cancer Nursing UK Conference 2024

EGFR+ UK’s Natasha and Gini with Deepa from the Ruth Strauss Foundation.

Since our last newsletter, we attended the Lung Cancer Nursing UK (LCNUK) Conference 2024 in Glasgow. This conference brings together lung cancer nurses across the UK, alongside patients, oncologists, researchers, charities and pharmaceutical company representatives to share knowledge, foster innovation, and enhance the quality of patient care across the United Kingdom.

A key focus of this year’s conference was the importance of genomics and genetics in patient treatment and care - which meant mutation driven lung cancers (like EGFR+) had a significant spotlight shone on them. In addition, we had our own stall at the conference to help raise awareness of EGFR+ lung cancer, where we handed out the results from our most recent patient survey and other information and support materials.

We were really pleased to see that patient quality of life was also at the forefront of many of the talks at the conference. For example, I attended the conference to help raise awareness of the patient perspective in terms of cancer care. I co-presented a talk with Dr Holly McGuigan exploring how to get the language right in cancer care, particularly when leading up to end of life. This was a powerful talk which highlighted that there is often a disparity between what a doctor thinks they have said, and what a patient actually hears. The take home message centred around the importance of communication in oncology settings, and the need to check understanding and be as clear as possible, as a lack of clarity and the associated uncertainty can significantly elevate a patient’s distress.

Patient wellbeing was also a much-explored topic in the poster sessions. Posters provide an opportunity for emerging researchers and practitioners to showcase their work, and highlight innovative research projects that they are working on. Both the winning poster (by Lynn Calman’s group at the University of Southampton) and the runner up (which was ours!) highlighted the importance of patient wellbeing support in lung cancer, with the latter showing that 1-in-3 patients have clinical levels of anxiety, and 1-in-4 have diagnosable levels of depression (Harrison & Terry, 2024). Worryingly, this poster also showed that half of patients don’t have, or don’t know if they have access to counselling within their hospital – showing the need for better, visible, accessible support for lung cancer patients. One way to increase access to psychological support is to use online methods to deliver it. This was a topic of a further poster from Oxford Brookes, and is an area we are carrying out our own research into, in collaboration with the Ruth Strauss Foundation and ALK+ UK.

Beyond the conference talks and poster sessions, the LCNUK Conference offers invaluable networking opportunities. As a charity, this is incredibly important, as it allows us to showcase what we do, and connect with healthcare professionals so we can raise awareness of both EGFR+ lung cancer, and the support services we offer to those affected by the disease.

Professor Gini Harrison, EGFR+ UK Research Trustee