Our 2023 Annual Conference will be held on 11 and 12 May in Birmingham. Make sure you don't miss out on next year's conference, save the date to your calendar and bookmark our webpage for when registration opens.

Thanks to all the LCNUK members who participated in this year’s annual workshop.  The group met recently to draw together the learning and prepare an abstract for wider dissemination at national/international meetings.  The annual workshop is a great opportunity to work on a defined project and collaborate with colleagues to help shape lung cancer health management through best practice learning.

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month and lung cancer charities ALK Positive UK, EGFR+ UK and the Ruth Strauss Foundation have teamed up for a lung cancer early diagnosis campaign. See Through the Symptoms is targeted at at primary care professionals to support earlier diagnosis of lung cancer in those who are non-smokers or never smokers. You can run your own local campaign by using the images, material, and resources available on the Ruth Strauss Foundation Lung Cancer website.

Lung cancer diagnoses are often made at a late stage. This is due in part to a lack of awareness of lung cancer symptoms as well as risk factors linked to the disease, among both the general population and healthcare professionals. The Get Checked! Campaign from Lung Cancer Europe aims to increase public awareness of signs, symptoms and not so well-known risk factors associated with Lung Cancer. Campaign videos are available in 17 languages for you to share to help to raise awareness.

Scotland's national cancer plan comes to completion in March 2023. The Scottish Government have recently published a report that uses insights from the available evidence to update on progress against all 68 actions in the plan as at 31 August 2022. Lung cancer action updates include the Detect Cancer Early Programme and the review of urgent suspicion of lung cancer referrals.

Striking findings feature in a new publication on the impact of COVID amongst mesothelioma and lung cancer nurses. The research found that two thirds of nurses reported excessive workload and two thirds reported a deterioration in their mental health. The authors provide recommendations to improve patient care and support the wellbeing of nurses. The study was funded by Mesothelioma UK and LCNUK.

Dr Liz Toy and Dr Paul Beckett – GIRFT’s clinical leads for lung cancer – along with Professor Tim Briggs, Chair of the GIRFT programme and national director of clinical improvement for NHS England, invite you to join them for a lunchtime webinar on Monday 21st November to discuss the GIRFT national report for lung cancer and next steps for implementation.

This joint event by Mesothelioma UK and BTOG is for thoracic oncology health care professionals. Held on Thursday 1st December 2022, at the Cavendish Conference Centre, London this Essential Update will cover the current information on mesothelioma including Equity and Excellence in the NHS, the Genetics and Pathology, Standard Treatment for Pleural Mesothelioma, Supporting Patients, Radiotherapy and Pleural Services.

Earlier this month, Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE) held a webinar on how to deal with the side effects of lung cancer and treatment. The hour-long webinar features panelists Jackie Fenemore, LCNUK Chair, who provides a comprehensive review of the topic and Merel Hennink, lung cancer patient and patient advocate at Longkanker Nederland, who shares her insight and experiences.

3rd November 2022, 18:00-19:00

An interactive online workshop involving discussion of an ALK+ aNSCLC case with a leading lung CNS. Visit https://letstalklung.co.uk/event-4 for the full agenda and to register.

This promotional meeting is organised & funded by Takeda for UK HCPs only. Takeda medicines will be discussed.

C-ANPROM/GB/ALUN/0118    October 2022

This summer the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Congress meeting voted for the RCN Council to lobby legislators to protect the title 'Nurse' in the UK. The RCN have had some very productive meetings with the Nursing and Midwifery Council who are also supporting this change to legislation. Thank you to all LCNUK members who have supported the campaign.

New tools have been launched to help patients and their families in accessing palliative care, and healthcare professionals in providing care and support. They were developed by the Mesothelioma UK Research Centre based on research findings, input from their Patient and Public Involvement Group, and a collaboration with the charity Mesothelioma UK. 

A scoping review of the experiences of presentation, diagnosis, treatment and care for school-based education workers with Mesothelioma concludes that almost nothing is known regarding the experiences of school-based education workers who develop mesothelioma. Secondary sources suggest that these experiences may be different to those of workers in standard high-risk industries. Education workers may also be a useful source of information when considering how to tackle the risk of asbestos in schools.