Lung cancer, 10 innovative ideas to improve treatment

Ten ideas to answer five crucial challenges for the future of lung oncology. They were imagined by ten very particular teams, made up of people with very different skills from each other. Objective: to outline an innovative strategy to respond in a simple and concrete way to specific needs that characterize the treatment path of patients with lung cancer. This is, in fact, the meaning of Breathink, a large Open-innovation and co-creation project wanted by AstraZeneca and which has already gone through various phases: the third took place on 10 and 11 November and led, in fact, to the conception of ten projects. But let’s go in order.

Lung cancer, emblem of precision oncology

Lung cancer is one of the most common tumors (41,000 new diagnoses have been estimated for 2020) and with the worst prognosis, due to the difficulty of diagnosing the disease at an early stage. In most cases, in fact, it is identified when the tumor is already at an advanced stage. The great advances made in recent years in the knowledge of the biology and molecular profiles of lung cancer are leading to a continuous redefinition of the diagnosis and treatment of this neoplasm. For these changes to translate into real benefits for all patients, however, it is necessary redefine the diagnostic-therapeutic-assistance pathand this poses challenges for both individual cancer centers and the healthcare system.

The Breathink Project

It is in this scenario that the Breathink project was born, officially launched last March. The first two phases led to the identification of the needs of patients and clinicians and to define their priorities, through thelistening to the Internet and workshop activities which involved more than 40 specialists engaged daily in the treatment of lung cancer, as well as patients and caregivers. Starting therefore from the real experience of those who experience the disease firsthand, the barriers, opportunities and hidden needs were outlined, then formalized in five challenges:

1 – promote communication between doctors and patients and the latter’s access to authoritative sources of information;

2 optimize the synergy and exchange of information among the members of the multidisciplinary team to ensure the timeliness of genomic tests and promote early diagnosis;

3 – integrate Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) into clinical practice;

4 – improve the multidisciplinary synergy to better manage the adverse events of the therapies;

5 – promote the inclusion and recognition of the figure of the Case Manager within the multidisciplinary team of pulmonary oncology.

The co-creation event

And the third phase of Breathink started precisely from the five challenges, which on 10 and 11 November brought together over one hundred people in Milan, including medical specialists, health professionals, psychologists, representatives of patient associations (Walce and IPOP), companies and startups in the healthcare sector (Alira Health, RiAtlas, Advice Pharma, Artexe, SurgiQ, Aging Tech, Wel Med) and in the digital world (Gek Lab, Fifth Beat, VeePee, PagoPa), universities (Politecnico di Milano, LIUC, Università of Trento, SDA Bocconi, University of Tor Vergata). The participants were divided into ten multidisciplinary tables that worked following designed co-creation methodologies ad hoc. “The value of the Breathink project lies in the approach and the way it was structured: a phase of research and analysis that led to this synthesis event – he declares Ivan Porro, CEO SurgiQ -. It is very concrete compared to other open innovation initiatives, which often aim only for an immediate solution. In the case of the AstraZeneca project, on the other hand, there is a willingness to go further and really support the players involved in the diagnostic-therapeutic process”.

The 10 innovative ideas

What emerged? Ten potential development guidelines for planning capable of concretely improving the diagnostic-therapeutic path. Particularly:

• to encourage communication at the service of patients: the development of an information chatbot that helps the patient to get in touch with the associations, and the creation of a network between the hospital structure and external players, which can lead to the adoption of shared tools for the exchange of information;
• to promote synergy between specialists and the timeliness of genomic tests in favor of early diagnosis: the creation of a cross-device computer system, a “place” where the multidisciplinary team can coordinate the collection of information in the medical record and access a algorithm for identifying the correct molecular exam to be performed;
• to improve the patient experience as the center of the care path: an outpatient clinic dedicated to listening to the patient and collecting Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs), and a digital diary capable of integrating clinical data with status information of subjective health and to the various manifestations recorded firsthand by the patient and caregiver;
• to encourage multidisciplinarity and better management of adverse events: the creation of a new patient experience that takes advantage of the opportunities provided by digital technology (computerized patient passport), by the most current clinical tools (PROs) and by integrated management models (discussion MDTs , case managers, new multidisciplinary teams).
• to strengthen the value of the Case Manager in taking charge of the patient: the establishment of a fellowshipalso useful for measuring its impact on society and on the NHS, and a pilot project with the establishment of a network of Case Managers to facilitate their integration into the various regional realities.

“Breathink is a very interesting initiative both because it allows real interaction between the various professional figures who surround the patient, and because of the presence of the patient himself, which represents an added value, and above all because it works on the multidimensionality of taking charge of the patient on an outpatient basis – comments Clare Bennate, MD Head of Thoracic Oncology Onco-Hematology Department AUSL of Romagna, Ravenna, among the participants of Breathink -. The management of oncological adverse events is a central theme in our daily clinical practice: there is in fact the real risk, for us oncologists, of not having enough time to manage these aspects; for this reason it is essential to be able to deal with the various professional figures involved in the management of these problems”.

The next stage

Breathink’s commitment will continue in 2023: now, in fact, the ball passes to AstraZeneca, which, wishing to continue supporting this real movement of open innovation by following up on what has been done up to now, will evaluate the innovative ideas with a view to concretely start the development of solutions that can improve the diagnostic-therapeutic path of the patient with lung cancer.