THIS IS A REBLOG OF A POST I WROTE FOR THE #LCSM CHAT BLOG.

The October 24th #LCSM Chat on “Social Media and Lung Cancer Advocacy: What Can I Do?” identified lots of information that the public needs to know about lung cancer.  Chat members decided we’d like to tweet those facts during Lung Cancer Awareness Month (#LCAM2013) this November. Some suggested we all tweet the same fact each day to generate the greatest impact on Twitter.

To coordinate this effort, the #LCSM team compiled a list of lung cancer tweets based on verified facts – one tweet for each day in November. Links to the sources for the facts are listed below the tweets for those who want evidence.

@LCSMChat will tweet each day at 11:55 AM Eastern Time if you prefer to retweet rather than come here to find the tweets.

The tweets fall into four groups, roughly by weeks:

Week 1:  WHY — reasons why curing lung cancer matters Week 2:  WHO — personal stories of lung cancer patients Week 3:  HOPE — symptoms, early detection, personalized treatment, research Week 4:  HELP — what you can do (how to fund research, advocate, support patients, etc.)

Trending: We’ve included #LCAM2103 and #LCSM in every tweet to help with trending. If we all tweet/retweet the fact of the day at the same time, we might achieve it!  Please try to tweet/retweet each daily fact as close as possible to 12 noon Eastern Time (New York City time for those of you outside of North America). Hint: The tweetdeck app will allow you to send tweets at a scheduled time.If we all tweet at the same time, we might achieve trending. Please try to tweet each day as close as possible to 12 noon Eastern Time

Week 1 tweets are listed below.  Tweets for Weeks 2-4 will be blogged later in the month. If you subscribe to the #LCSM Chat blog, you will receive an email when our blog posts are published. All the facts will also be available on a “Lung Cancer Facts” page of the LCSM Chat site for easy reference.

WEEK 1: WHY – REASONS WHY CURING LUNG CANCER MATTERS

November 1 Tweet
Myth: Don’t smoke? Can’t get lung cancer. Fact: Lung cancer in never smokers is 6th leading cause of US cancer deaths. #LCSM #LCAM2013

Johns Hopkins Medicine. Guide on Lung Cancer in Never-Smokers – Different Disease Different Treatments (09/15/2009). Retrieved Oct 30, 2013, from http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/Guide_on_Lung_Cancer_in_NeverSmokers__Different_Disease_Different_Treatments.

November 2 Tweet
Lung cancer kills almost 2x as many women as breast cancer & 3x as many men as prostate cancer. #LCSM #LCAM2013

U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. United States Cancer Statistics: 1999–2010 Incidence and Mortality Web-based Report. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Cancer Institute; 2013. Retrieved from http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/uscs/toptencancers.aspx. To access data, select year 2010, “death rates” tab and view table for all ethnic groups Per CDC, 2010 cancer deaths were caused 37.9% by lung cancer and 21.9% by breast cancer in women, 60.1% by lung cancer and 21.8% by prostate cancer in men.

November 3 Tweet
160,000 Americans will die of lung cancer this year. 80% will be never smokers or nonsmokers. #LCSM #LCAM2013

SEER Cancer Statistics Factsheets: Lung and Bronchus Cancer. National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD, http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html In the United States in 2013, it is estimated there will be about 159,480 deaths from lung cancer. Approximately 6.9 percent of men and women will be diagnosed with lung and bronchus cancer at some point during their lifetime.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MMWR Weekly 56(44);1157-1161. (9-Nov-2007). Retrieved Oct 30, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5644a2.htm. Lung cancer cases are 17.9% never smokers, 61.2% former smokers, 20.9% smokers (see Table 2, lung neoplasms).

November 4 Tweet
The 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is 16%, about the same as it’s been for 40 years. #LCSM #LCAM2013

SEER Cancer Statistics Factsheets: Lung and Bronchus Cancer. National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD, http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html Current 5-year survival rate of adults with lung and bronchus cancers is 16%. In 1975, the 5-year survival rate for lung cancer in adults was 11.4%.

November 5 Tweet
World Health Org: Air pollution is responsible for 223K lung cancers deaths/yr worldwide – it’s worse than 2nd-hand smoke. #LCSM #LCAM2013

International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization. Press Release No 221 – IARC: Outdoor air pollution a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths. (17-Oct-2013). Accessed 20-Oct-2013 from http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/pr221_E.pdf

November 6 Tweet
Lung cancer takes more lives than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined – it accounts for 27% of all cancer deaths.  #LCSM #LCAM2013 

American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures 2013. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2013. Accessed 20-Oct-2013 from http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@epidemiologysurveilance/documents/document/acspc-037115.pdf

November 7 Tweet
81% of prostate cancer and 60% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed before they spread. Lung cancer? Only 15%. #LCSM #LCAM2013

 American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures 2013. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2013. Accessed 20-Oct-2013 from http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@epidemiologysurveilance/documents/document/acspc-037115.pdf

November 8 Tweet U
S research $ per cancer death is far greater for colorectal (4x), prostate (8.5x) & breast (14x) cancers than lung cancer. #LCSM #LCAM2013

National Lung Cancer Partnership. What You Can Do (graphic). (Mar-2013). Accessed from http://www.nationallungcancerpartnership.org/images/uploads/files/NLCP_FS_1Facts_NextDayFlyer_2013_BACK.pdf.

American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures 2013. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2013. Accessed 20-Oct-2013 from http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@epidemiologysurveilance/documents/document/acspc-037115.pdf.

U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Department of Defense. 2012 Congressionally Funded Medical Research Programs. (30-Sep-2012). Accessed from http://cdmrp.army.mil/pubs/annreports/2012annrep/2012annreport.pdf.

NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools. Estimates of Funding for Various Research, Condition, and Disease Categories (RCDC). (10-Apr-2013). Accessed from http://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx.

November 9 Tweet
Lung cancer is the second leading cause of all deaths in the US. #LCSM #LCAM2013

National Lung Cancer Partnership. What You Can Do (graphic). (Mar-2013). Accessed from http://www.nationallungcancerpartnership.org/images/uploads/files/NLCP_FS_1Facts_NextDayFlyer_2013_BACK.pdf 

November 10 Tweet
Lung cancer is also linked to radon gas in homes (20,000 deaths/yr), workplace exposure, genetics, & cancer treatment. #LCSM #LCAM2013

US Environmental Protection Agency. Radon. (26-Aug-2013). Accessed from http://www.epa.gov/radon/.

World Health Organization’s Environmental and Occupational Cancers Fact Sheet http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs350/en/

Coté ML et. al. Eur J Cancer. (Sep-2012). Increased risk of lung cancer in individuals with a family history of the disease: a pooled analysis from the International Lung Cancer Consortium. Accessed from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=22436981

American Cancer Society. Second Cancers Caused by Cancer Treatment. (30-Jan-2012). http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid/documents/webcontent/002043-pdf.pdf