All good things … The Sunset of #LCSM Chat
Since it first appeared in the spring of 2013, the #LCSM (Lung Cancer Social Media) hashtag has become THE place on Twitter to find up-to-date information about lung cancer research, treatment, and patient care.
In July 2013, the lung cancer community followed the precedent set by the #hcsm (Healthcare Social Media), #bcsm (Breast Cancer Social Media), and #btsm (Brain Tumor Social Media) communities and held its first “tweetchat” using the #LCSM hashtag. This chat gave rise to the #LCSM Community and spawned an lcsmchat.com website that posted blogs about upcoming chat topics and #LCSM community activities.
The chat has convened fairly regularly (with occasional vacations) in the subsequent 8+ years, touching on a wide variety of topics of interest to patients, healthcare professionals, and advocates. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of these weekly (and eventually monthly) chats is that they brought together a variety of stakeholders in the lung cancer community on equal footing and removed silos to communications.
As with other Twitter cancer hashtag communities, participation in #LCSM Chat waxed and waned—new community members actively participated, refocused on new interests, and moved on, sometimes returning later. Attracting and retaining participants was a challenge for a variety of reasons. Twitter chats were tough to navigate for some, which discouraged participants. People with lung cancer dropped out due to health issues. A wide variety of platforms and projects arose to compete for available screen time. An added complication has been growing disenchantment with social media, especially after nearly two years of pandemic isolation.
Despite active marketing and solid content, participation and engagement in #LCSM chat has continued to drop; the vast majority of tweets are generated by the #LCSM Chat team rather than participants.
With regret, we’ve concluded it is time to bring #LCSM Chat to an end. The vibrant #LCSM hashtag will continue to live on, just without the monthly hashtag chats. The lcsmchat.com blog will be archived and remain accessible online until sometime in 2022.
Thanks to everyone in the lung cancer community for sharing your Thursday evenings and your perspectives with us over the years. We look forward to continuing interactions with everyone on #LCSM and in collaborations on other projects.
The #LCSM Chat Team
Deana Hendrickson (@LungCancerFaces)
David Tom Cooke, MD (@DavidCookeMD)
Janet Freeman-Daily (@JFreemanDaily)
Brendon Stiles, MD (@BrendonStilesMD)
Timothy Craig Allen, MD (@TimAllenMDJD)
Charu Aggarwal, MD (@CharuAggarwalMD)
#LCSM Chat Topic 2021-11-04: #Lungcancer advocacy–what a difference a decade makes!
Join us for #LCSM Chat on Twitter this Thursday, November 4, at 5pm PT, 8pm ET as we celebrate the amazing growth of lung cancer advocacy over the past ten years. Please share to spread the word.
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, also known as LCAM. The first Lung Cancer Awareness Day in the United States was launch on November 14, 1998. It intentionally coincided with the American Cancer Society’s annual Great American Smokeout in hopes that positive attention on lung cancer patients and research would counteract the stigma associated with the disease. The first Lung Cancer Awareness Month (LCAM) happened two years later in November 2000. Ten years after that, organized LCAM events such as “Shine a Light on Lung Cancer” were slowly spreading around the world with support from lung cancer nonprofits, but they still struggled to attract participants, sponsors, and news coverage. The sad reality was that lung cancer in 2010 had very few survivors or family members who possessed the energy, good health, and motivation to become public advocates for the lung cancer community.
Over the past decade, however, things changed rapidly. Breakthroughs in lung cancer research and patient care gave us targeted therapies, immunotherapy, lung cancer screening, and increasing survival statistics. Patients and family members became more engaged in advocacy. Lung cancer online communities and Facebook groups proliferated. The hashtags #LCSM (lung cancer social media), #LungCancerAwarenessMonth, and #LCAM gained traction on Twitter. The media published more stories about lung cancer patients and treatments.
On Thursday, November 4, 2021, the lung cancer community will gather on #LCSM Chat to discuss the topic “Lung cancer advocacy: what a difference a decade makes!” Our moderator Janet Freeman-Daily (@JFreemanDaily) will guide us in exploring the evolution of lung cancer advocacy over the past 10 years using the following topics:
- T1: What did lung cancer advocacy look like when you joined the lung cancer community? Who was involved? What was being done? What activity was visible outside the LC community?
- T2: What factors drove or contributed to the evolution of lung cancer advocacy over the past 10 years?
- T3: What does lung cancer advocacy look like now? Do advocacy activities differ by type of stakeholders? Has public visibility of LC advocacy increased?
- T4: What changes would you like to see in lung cancer advocacy in the next 10 years, and how can the lung cancer community help make it happen?
Please join us, and bring your experiences and wisdom! Remember to include #LCSM in ALL your tweets so the other chat participants can see them. You can read a primer on participating in the chat here. We look forward to chatting with you!
#LCSM Chat Topic 07-Oct-2021: Best in Show–Lung Cancer Highlights from #WCLC21 & #ESMO21
Two premier oncology professional organizations, ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) and IASLC (International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer), held meetings in September. On Thursday, October 7, at 8 pm Eastern Time (5 pm Pacific), #LCSM Chat will discuss major lung cancer findings from IASLC 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer (#WCLC21) and the ESMO 2021 Annual Meeting (#ESMO21). We will examine #WCLC21 and #ESMO21 presentations that could have major impacts on lung cancer clinical care, and why these are important to the lung cancer community. Our moderator Charu Aggarwal (@CharuAggarwalMD) will lead our discussion using the following topics:
- T1: What new targeted therapy options were presented at #WCLC21 and #ESMO21?
- T2: What key biomarker and liquid biopsy presentations happened at #WCLC21 and #ESMO21?
- T3: What new ideas did #WCLC21 and #ESMO21 offer regarding adjuvant immunotherapy?
- T4: What did #WCLC21 and #ESMO21 presentations suggest about using immunotherapy when brain metastases are present?
- T5: What other #WCLC21 and #ESMO21 presentations or ideas captured you interest?
Please join us, and bring your experiences and wisdom! Remember to include #LCSM in ALL your tweets so the other chat participants can see them. You can read a primer on participating in the chat here. We look forward to chatting with you!
#LCSM 
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