Race, place of residence and social status impact a patient's lung cancer treatment outcome

Unmasking Disparities: ARC NWL's latest scoping review exposes the hidden impact of race, residence, and social status on lung cancer care outcomes. Dive into the critical insights to understand and address health inequalities in lung cancer care.

Laura Lennox and Sophie Coronini-Cronberg, members of the Implementation and Improvement team at ARC NWL, have recently published a scoping review investigating health inequalities in access to, experience of, and outcomes from treatment for lung cancer. The review, available on BMJ Open, examines evidence published over the last decade  that examined health inequalities in Lung Cancer care and highlights the impact of how much race, place of residence, and social status have on patients' access to and benefit from lung cancer treatment. The research findings indicate that survival and mortality rates in lung cancer care are notably worse for individuals living in rural areas, elderly patients, and men. 

This research was made possible in part through a grant from RM Partners West London Cancer Alliance, which funded a 12-month Health Inequalities Research Fellowship at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. 

Lead author, Dr Laura Lennox, explained: “Clinical pathways are a common point of intervention for health system improvement initiatives and can be used to reduce unwarranted variation, enhance care quality, or improve outcomes. The focus of the study was lung cancer, due to it being one of the biggest causes of premature mortality in the world, including the UK.”

The research supervisor, Dr Sophie Coronini-Cronberg, added: “Our work shows a way that health inequalities can be grouped and also mapped along a clinical pathway. Although our example was lung cancer, the methodology could easily be applied to any clinical pathway whether hospital, community or primary care.”

This study is part of a wider portfolio of work addressing health inequalities. Dr. Sophie Coronini-Cronberg, with extensive experience in evaluating, implementing, and advising on health inequality-reduction policies and programs, has been commissioned by NHS England to contribute to the upcoming Outpatients Strategic Vision by providing evidence and expertise for the potential risks for exacerbating health inequalities.

In line with Northwest London priorities relating to mental health, the ARC Implementation Team is also currently working with West London NHS Trust, one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK. The team is actively involved in supporting the multi-disciplinary liaison psychiatry team with developing an implementation and subsequent evaluation of an education and training package to reduce restrictive practices such as chemical restraint and seclusion in emergency departments. Additionally, the team are collaborating on a service evaluation to understand staff perspectives on the impact of e-cigarette use by patients admitted to low or medium-secure forensic mental health services, providing valuable insights for future policy recommendations.