Bob Li, SVP Global Head of Medical Affairs of Oncology at AstraZeneca, shared on LinkedIn:
”During my years as a medical oncologist and physician scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering, I witnessed firsthand how even the most promising treatment means little if a patient cannot get to it. Delayed referrals, missed follow-ups, weeks lost to scheduling gaps, information that never reached the right person at the right time.
We have made extraordinary progress in lung cancer medicine. We have more targeted therapies than ever before. We have screening tools that can detect disease early. But the infrastructure that moves a patient from an abnormal scan to a timely diagnosis to the right treatment remains fragmented for far too many people, and disproportionately so for those already facing socioeconomic disadvantage.
This is why I’m proud to share a new patient-led consensus statement on patient navigation in lung cancer, developed by leaders across the global lung cancer patient community and supported by AstraZeneca.
The evidence is compelling:
- A trial in the U.S. with 1200 smokers found that patient navigation nearly tripled screening completion rates in community health centers
- Time from first abnormal chest X-ray to first treatment was reduced by nearly 20 days when a patient navigator was introduced in a single U.S. cancer center
- In a systematic review that included clinical trials across several cancer types, patients and caregivers consistently reported feeling more supported, both emotionally and psychologically, when patient navigation was used.
Yet despite this, patient navigation remains inconsistently available in lung cancer, often limited to short-term pilots or specific institutions within certain cancer centers, despite proof that patient navigation has been shown to significantly increase screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers.
This consensus statement is a call to action. It identifies three priorities:
- Sustainable investment,
- Standardized training and role clarity
- Policy action to enable scale.
Patient navigation is not a luxury. It is the connective tissue that ensures our scientific advances actually reach the patients who need them.
As someone who has spent a career working to bring new therapies to patients with lung cancer, I believe deeply that innovation in treatment must be matched by innovation in how we deliver care. No patient should be left to navigate lung cancer alone.
Read the full consensus statement here.”
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