Let’s Win and Partners Present Poster and Abstract at Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium

Let’s Win! Pancreatic Cancer and partners are presenting a poster and publishing an abstract that highlights the first pancreatic cancer group Twitter chat dedicated to sharing information with the pancreatic cancer community.

The poster “Introduction of #PancChat: A novel Twitter platform to inform and engage the pancreatic cancer community” was presented at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium held in San Francisco, California, from January 18-20, 2018. #PancChat is a live, hour-long monthly Twitter chat that offers patients and caregivers real-time communication in an easily accessible platform.

“The success of the PancChat shows the power of social media as a new tool to build community,” says PancChat participating oncologist Allyson Ocean of Weill Cornell Medical Center; Dr. Ocean is also Chair of the Let’s Win Scientific Advisory Board.

Launched in April 2016 and led by Let’s Win, an initiative supported by the Lustgarten Foundation, the #PancChat team corresponds with participants and replies to tweets that are not addressed during the chat. Chat partners include the Lustgarten Foundation, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Celgene Corporation, and oncologists and researchers from major hospitals and cancer centers.

Pancreatic cancer remains the deadliest cancer, with a five-year survival rate of just eight percent. #PancChat informs pancreatic cancer patients, caregivers, doctors, nurses, and researchers on topics relevant to the pancreatic cancer community. Participants include patients, caregivers, physicians, researchers, top ASCO social media influencers, AACR members, and advocacy organizations. Together the participants share the latest information on selected chat topics. Popular past topics have included clinical trials, hereditary or familial pancreatic cancer, and early detection.

There were 15,548 total tweets by 1,636 users, and 52,464,405 impressions from April 15, 2016, through December 31, 2017. “#PancChat clearly fills a need in the pancreatic cancer community,” notes Dr. Ocean.