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A multistakeholder collaboration to raise the profile of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) with healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Europe

Introduction and background

Background

CCA has a very aggressive nature, is difficult to treat and is invariably fatal¹;
The incidence and death rates for CCA have been alarmingly increasing over the last decades, globally¹;
Symptoms of CCA are usually silent in early stages of the disease and when they do present they are non-specific^1,2;
As a result, it is usually diagnosed late, in advanced stages, when therapeutic options are limited and compromised^1,2;
Despite latest advances in CCA research, patient outcomes and prognosis have still not improved¹ and awareness of CCA remains low with healthcare professionals (HCPs)³compared to other cancers;
There is an increasing need to raise the profile of CCA among HCPs, to help them better identify the associated signs, symptoms and risk factors, potentially enabling an earlier diagnosis and better outcomes for patients with CCA³.

Collaboration

In 2022, AMMF, in partnership with a group of professionals committed to CCA, partnered with a single focus of raising the profile of CCA among more common cancers within the European HCP community;
The multidisciplinary team, called the campaign committee, represented Oncologists, Researchers, Patients, Pathologists, Nurses and Industry;
The campaign committee met regularly to conceive and build the campaign.

Illustrating the snakes wrapping around the common bile duct and forming the biliary tree

Our focus

“We need to launch a “simple” hard-hitting but uncontroversial awareness campaign that drives general awareness of CCA among more common cancers”

Target audience

Primary target audience:

Community HCPs: Gastroenterologists, oncologists;
Specialists in regional centers: Hepatologists, gastroenterologists, oncologists.

Secondary target audience:

Community general practitioners, community nurses;
Specialists in regional centers: experts for internal medicine.

The campaign

We chose to use an optical illusion to capture the imagination;
The bile duct can seem like an innocuous structure but when a malignancy develops, the consequences are catastrophic;
Nevertheless, awareness of CCA and its impact is low;
This campaign uses the visual concepts of camouflage and deception to highlight the importance of early detection and prompt physicians to learn more about the possible symptoms and risk factors.

The message

Drive awareness of CCA as an increasingly common cancer that has a poor outcome when detected late;
Provide awareness around symptoms and high-risk factors for CCA;
Encourage the target audience to think of CCA as a cancer that needs treatment by specialists as early as possible.

1. Banales, J. M. et al. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020;17, 557–588;
2. ESMO 2019. Biliary Tract Cancer. ESMO Patient Guide Series 1–45;
3. AMMF GP Awareness Campaign 2023.
Available at: https://ammf.org.uk/gp-awareness-campaign/ [Accessed May 2023]

Cholangiocarcinoma