The first of six innovative, specialized patient resources, the KRAS gateway allows patients to easily access KRAS-specific information and connect to community

WASHINGTON, DC - LUNGevity Foundation, the nation’s leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization, has created a new resource: Lung Cancer Patient Gateways. The first to launch is the KRAS Patient Gateway, which will allow cancer patients with the KRAS gene mutation to more easily locate resources and treatment information and to find a community of patients and caregivers.

“There have been substantial, even extraordinary, advances in scientific lung cancer research over the past decade,” said Andrea Ferris, president and CEO of LUNGevity Foundation. “With such rapidly advancing science and resulting treatment options, both newly diagnosed patients and their physicians stand to benefit from having an interactive resource where the latest information about the disease is readily available. We’re grateful to Amgen for providing the funding for the KRAS Gateway website.”

 The KRAS Patient Gateway is a user-friendly and easily accessible information portal that offers the latest medical updates and potentially lifesaving resources for people living with KRAS markers for lung cancer. The Gateway, available at kras.lungevity.org, will provide a single comprehensive place for people living with lung cancer to learn about KRAS, find a specialist based on individualized search criteria, join a variety of KRAS communities, explore clinical trial options, and read up-to-the-minute, curated news and trends.

“Given the speed of innovation in precision medicine, it’s critical that the roughly 1 in 3 people diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer who have actionable mutations have the latest information about their disease and the management of it,” said Darryl Sleep, MD, chief medical officer and senior vice president of Global Medical at Amgen. “Amgen is proud to be a sponsor of LUNGevity’s newly launched KRAS Patient Gateway. This platform provides up-to-date information, tools, and resources to help the 25% of people with NSCLC who have the KRAS mutation access the latest in science and research so they can be better empowered to take an active role in their treatment.”

 The KRAS Patient Gateway is just the first of six platforms that will be released over the next six months at gateway.lungevity.org. The other five will be aimed at different types of lung cancer including non-small cell and small cell lung cancer, as well as specific mutations responsible for initiating and supporting lung cancer growth, such as ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase), EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor), and other rare mutations such as ROS1, MET, NTRK, BRAF, RET, and more.

LUNGevity Foundation is the nation's leading lung cancer organization focused on improving outcomes for people with lung cancer through research, education, policy initiatives, and support and engagement for patients, survivors, and caregivers. LUNGevity seeks to make an immediate impact on quality of life and survivorship for everyone touched by the disease—while promoting health equity by addressing disparities throughout the care continuum. LUNGevity works tirelessly to advance research into early detection and more effective treatments, provide information and educational tools to empower patients and their caregivers, promote impactful public policy initiatives, and amplify the patient voice through research and engagement. The organization provides an active community for patients and survivors—and those who help them live better and longer lives.

Comprehensive resources include a medically vetted and patient-centric website, a toll-free HELPLine for support, the International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference, and an easy-to-use Clinical Trial Finder, among other tools. All of these programs are to achieve our vision—a world where no one dies of lung cancer. LUNGevity Foundation is proud to be a four-star Charity Navigator organization.

About Lung Cancer in the US

·         About 1 in 16 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime.

·         More than 235,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year.

·         About 60%-65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers.

·         Lung cancer takes more lives in the United States than colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers combined.

·         Only about 22% of all people diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States will survive 5 years or more, BUT if it is caught before it spreads, the chance of 5-year survival improves dramatically.

Please visit www.LUNGevity.org to learn more.

The KRAS (Kirsten RAt Sarcoma) biomarker is a mutation in the KRAS gene that causes cancer cells to grow. In healthy cells, KRAS sends signals that tell the cell to grow. When mutated, KRAS sends too many signals, thus cells grow out of control and morph into cancer. KRAS mutations are not hereditary; instead, they are acquired and can occur during a person’s lifespan.