ASK Cancer Commons has International Impact

Cancer Commons provides expert, personalized guidance to patients and caregivers around the world through our ASK Cancer Commons service. Recently, we plotted the distribution of our ASK users on a world map to see where they live. We found that about 2,000 people in more than 44 countries have sought help from Cancer Commons.

“Cancer Commons is catering to an international audience and therefore has great potential even beyond the U.S., where the majority of under-served cancer patients may be present,” says summer intern Usman Raza, a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley School of Information, who prepared the map.

Further analysis revealed more about who uses the ASK service. We found that about 60% of ASK users are female, and one third of ASK users contacted us regarding their (or a loved one’s) lung cancer treatment. Other common cancer types were skin (14%), breast (13%), and gastrointestinal (10%) cancer.

We have received questions about cancer treatment for people of varying ages. Five percent of questions were regarding cancer in patients between 0 and 30 years of age. Twenty-nine percent of patients were between 30 and 50 years of age, and 53% were 50 to 70. Thirteen percent of questions were regarding patients 71 years old or older.

This analysis illuminates the diversity of people benefiting from our ASK service and will help guide our efforts to continue to improve the way cancer is treated for patients around the world.