Abstract P2-05-06: Contemporary media – highlighting a podcast hosted by a breast cancer survivor – to disseminate breast cancer education in a credible, patient-friendly format

Abstract Background: Most individuals and families facing a health-related decision will attempt to self-educate on their situation. Yet, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy found only 12% of Americans to have proficient health-based literacy. Individuals are searching for information on their diagnoses and ways to improve health, but accessible information that is both credible and contextualized to one’s situation is often lost in noise. Many use internet search channels, with Google reporting 70,000 health-related queries per minute, and a January 2024 study of YouTube users reported that 87.6% of respondents watch health related content (HRC) and 84.7% make decisions based on what they watch. According to a 2019 study in Consumer Informatics and Digital Health, 9 out of 10 adults in the US use at least one online social network. In addition, the podcast channel has seen significant growth in recent years; the number of people listening to podcasts has doubled since 2013 to over 177 million listening monthly (Deal, 2022). Methods: As a survivor who self-identifies as a “patient from hell,” Samira Daswani found navigating the cancer care system challenging and frustrating. She led the development of a podcast to disseminate information important to cancer patients and families. Within the first 7 months of our Patient from Hell podcast launch in May of 2022, we ranked within the top 10% of podcasts shared globally (Spotify, 2022) and podcast followers have doubled since the beginning of 2024. One of the primary areas the podcast has covered is breast cancer via interviews with oncologists, researchers, patients and survivors. A new episode is released bi-weekly on all podcast channels, with social media clips of the episode posted 2-3 times per week via Instagram, YouTube and TikTok for the week after the launch of an episode. The podcast was funded in May 2023 by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute to disseminate PCORI-funded research projects and has featured guests such as Dr. Fumiko Chino, Dr. Karen Wernli, among others. Findings: Of the 36 episodes published in the last twelve months (July 2023-June 2024), 33% (12 episodes) have been breast cancer specific (vs. more general cancer topics that are applicable to a wider audience of cancer patients, survivors and caregivers). Those 12 breast cancer specific episodes have garnered 81,468 impressions on Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Twitter and via our newsletter. We started to share one minute clips via YouTube shorts in March of 2024 and have generated over 5,000 views of those “key highlight” short clips in just 3 months for the breast cancer focused episodes and our YouTube channel subscribers have nearly doubled since we started running the “Shorts.” Discussion: The podcast medium is a novel and effective way of disseminating breast cancer information in a form that is both approachable and actionable. In addition to providing an opportunity to glean information by listening to full podcast episodes, we have learned that amplifying key messages and takeaways via short episode clips on social media platforms helps to further disseminate credible, science-backed information as well as key patient learnings to a wider audience of people impacted by breast cancer. The podcast is one patient and family education tool we are developing (JCO 42(16), E13064). Citation Format: Molly Lindquist, Samira Daswani, Douglas W. Blayney. Contemporary media – highlighting a podcast hosted by a breast cancer survivor – to disseminate breast cancer education in a credible, patient-friendly format [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2024; 2024 Dec 10-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2025;31(12 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-05-06.