Abstract LB248: SCHEQ Lung Cancer Health Equity Summit learnings: Building a community to address disparities

Abstract SCHEQ (STEMM & Cancer Health Equity) Foundation held our lung cancer health equity summit, themed “Black and Hispanic Populations Navigating Lung Cancer: Stepping Stones To Equity” to bring together diverse stakeholders across the lung cancer care continuum that are dedicated to addressing disparities. This summit was held at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Georgia in Suwanee Nov 18-19, 2024, and is the first lung cancer summit that focused on solutions instead of only the challenges. We increased enrollment from 42 to 117 people, had 20 states and Puerto Rico present, had 3 exhibitors, and had 53 different institutions or organizations from across the country. The conference consisted of panel discussions, thematic sessions, a poster session, individual presentations, 5 roundtables and 5 breakout sessions that spanned screening, treatments, biomarkers, clinical trials, and workforce diversity, to name a few. A key requirement was that all of the sessions had to have diverse representation and have no all male panels. In preconference surveys, attendees said their leading goals of attending the conference were to address barriers and disparities (23%) and health equity strategies (16.9%), while they indicated the biggest challenges in lung cancer were access and healthcare delivery (24.7%) and clinical trials (20.6%). Of the solo presentations, the day 1 keynote on structural racism and lung cancer, and the wrap up and closing session had 76% of attendees extremely satisfied. The clinical trial diversity session (76%) and panels on both patient/caregiver experience and community engagement (71%) were the highest rated. The most attended roundtable session was partnerships for increasing clinical trial diversity while the most attended breakout session was on using social media for education and marketing. Attendees noted that this was an encompassing event that addresses the needs of underserved populations, and we have demonstrated that you can create an event that brings together patients, researchers, clinicians, and hospital systems. We will be launching a webinar and working group to amplify the programs reach and impact. Citation Format: Eugene Manley, Rochelle Prosser. SCHEQ Lung Cancer Health Equity Summit learnings: Building a community to address disparities [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 2 (Late-Breaking, Clinical Trial, and Invited Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_2):Abstract nr LB248.