Nearly 1,200 people have signed up for AstraZeneca’s “Notes of EnCOURAGEment” campaign since it launched in late 2020 as a way to encourage people to stick with their lung cancer treatment.
But the long and often arduous treatment regimen also takes a toll on caregivers. Now, loved ones can sign up to get encouraging notes in their mailboxes, too.
“Our insights revealed that caregivers often need just as much support as patients,” Shubh Goel, AZ’s U.S. franchise head for immuno-oncology and GI tumors, said in an interview. “They face similar anxieties about making the best treatment decisions and experience similar feelings of isolation.”
After a pause to refresh the creative and add new patient stories, AZ rolled out a new social media campaign promoting the program last month with Facebook ads that will continue throughout this year.
The ads send patients and their caregivers to the campaign website where they're encouraged to sign up to receive cards in the mail each month, followed up with email.
The cards come from lung cancer patients who have already gone through the treatment and feature motivational messages like "You have to stay strong" and "Don’t give up. Don’t Stop." They also give advice and practical information, like how to manage side effects.
In one card shown on the website, a patient named Lois suggests having “heart to heart talks" with spouses or loved ones.
“You can’t protect them. You have to say, ‘I really need to share this with you,’” she writes.
AZ first launched the program in October 2020 based on research showing 60% of lung cancer immunotherapy patients dropped out before finishing a full course of treatment.
Since immunotherapy can take up to a year and usually comes after earlier rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, patients can experience treatment fatigue and question whether the therapy is working.
The cards aim to help them feel less alone and reassure them that getting through the treatment is something “they should feel empowered to pursue,” Goel said.
Feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive,” she said, and patients especially like that the notes are geared to their specific diagnosis and where they are in the treatment journey.
Although the campaign is unbranded, the notes are aimed at people being treated for stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer or extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, indications for which AZ markets its blockbuster PD-(L)1 inhibitor, Imfinzi.