Recognizing there’s nothing small about a small cell lung cancer diagnosis, Jazz Pharmaceuticals is teaming up with four leading lung cancer associations on a new education initiative for the less-recognized lung cancer.
“Nothing Small About It” aims to be the go-to online resource for diagnosed patients and their families, who often struggle to parse through information centered on the more commonly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer. Small cell lung cancer makes up about 13% of U.S. lung cancer diagnoses every year.
The unbranded effort, with CancerCare, GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, Lung Cancer Foundation of America and LUNGevity Foundation, debuts a year after Jazz launched its small cell lung cancer treatment, Zepzelca. The first new small cell lung cancer therapy in more than 20 years, Zepzelca nabbed FDA-accelerated approval in June 2020 and launched the next month.
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Sifting through all lung cancer information “is complicated, so we want to make something that was simple and easy for the small cell lung cancer patient … outside of the general sphere of lung cancer, educational material,” Abizer Gaslightwala, vice president, head of U.S. hematology and oncology at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, said.
One of the things Jazz learned in research for the project is that when small lung cell cancer patients were first diagnosed, nearly 50% spent less than 10 minutes talking to their HCP about what it meant.
The “Nothing Small About it” website addresses this directly with the video “More Than 10 Minutes,” featuring patients and carers discussing how they cope with an SCLC diagnosis. The main message? Patients need to empower themselves in their treatment. Cancer activist and sportscaster Lewis Johnson then leads the viewer on an interactive path for either “patient” or “caregiver” offering support based on the choice.
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In addition to working with the four lung cancer charities to spread the word about the site, Jazz will engage with HCPs leaving them tear sheets of information related to “Nothing Small About It” to pass on to patients who need it. Of course, the pharma plans to keep interacting with the community to continue to improve and develop the site.
“As we learn more about what’s working and areas for improvement and more things we can do we want to evolve this—this is not the beginning and end, this is the beginning,” Gaslightwala said.
