Our topic for the next #LCSM Tweet Chat on Thursday, August 25^th at 5 PM Pacific (8 PM Eastern) is “Pain and lung cancer treatment: How does it affect you or someone you know?”  The moderator for this chat is Dr. David Tom Cooke (@DavidCookeMD)

Advances in the care and treatment of individuals with lung cancer are appearing rapidly.  With lung cancer screening we are finding earlier stage tumors.  With immunotherapy and targeted therapy, we are finding effective treatments for patients with advanced and metastatic lung cancer.  But during lung cancer interventions across the stages of the disease, patients may encounter pain.  Whether it is the pain of surgery for early stage lung cancer, treating painful bone mets in advanced disease, or treating adverse events for radiation and chemotherapy, pain has an impact, and significantly affects quality of life.

By having a conversation with the #LCSM community, #LCSM will put to light the impact of pain during lung cancer treatment, talk about the communication between the patient, family/friends & healthcare providers about pain during treatment, and discuss approaches and strategies that prove to be beneficial, or ideas that may be helpful in either preventing or making better pain during and after treatment for lung cancer.

With the above goals, here are questions that will be discussed during our August 25^th Tweet Chat:

• T1: Was pain a significant factor in yours or someone’s treatment of #lungcancer?  How so? #LCSM
• T2: Was the topic/risk of pain brought up during discussions between the patient, family & HCPs about #lungcancer treatment? #LCSM
• T3: If you or family/friends had chronic pain prior to #lungcancer Dx/Rx, was that taken into consideration? #LCSM
• T4: What worked to control your pain during #lungcancer treatment? #LCSM
• T5: If you could change/develop something to improve your experience with pain during #lungcancer treatment, what would it be? #LCSM

Please 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.  Hope you’ll join us!