The White Ribbon Project: Dr. Gieske Reflects on Importance of Lung Cancer Advocacy Work

Michael R. Gieske, MD, Director of Lung Cancer Screening at the St. Elizabeth Cancer Center, discusses the White Ribbon Project at the IASLC 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer.

“The White Ribbon Project is an advocacy organization that works very hard to raise lung cancer awareness and lung cancer screening awareness,” he said.

The project began with Heidi Nafman-Onda, who was diagnosed with stage IIIa non-small cell lung cancer, which was asymptomatic and “found incidentally while undergoing investigation of an ovarian cyst for ovarian cancer,” she writes on the White Ribbon Project’s website.

White Ribbon Project organizers shared on their website that the project began in the fall of 2020, when “lung cancer advocates began increasing their efforts to encourage health care and cancer centers to recognize Lung Cancer Awareness Month in November.”

However, “the stigma against lung cancer, resulting from years of misleading awareness campaigns that imply that lung cancer stems from only one cause, has proven to be a huge barrier to recognition, patient advocacy, and fundraising efforts for this deadly and complex disease,” organizers said, emphasizing that “lung cancer is the leading cancer killer for both men and women, but it historically receives only a fraction of cancer research money.”

Dr. Gieske explained that this inspired Nafman-Onda to raise lung cancer awareness and bring attention to the matter.

“She was very frustrated with the lack of attention that lung cancer got, and the stigma, and the nihilism associated with lung cancer,” Dr. Gieske said. “She had her husband build one of these white ribbons out of plywood.”

The large white ribbons, which carry a sticker to highlight the project and lung cancer awareness, are designed to raise awareness and are signed by health care professionals, patients with lung cancer, survivors, and caregivers.

“They’re now in all 50 states, they’re in about 40 different countries around the world,” Dr. Gieske said. “I take one with me every time I go backpacking and I take it to the top of the highest mountain… I like to say I’m literally screaming from the mountain tops to raise lung cancer awareness and lung cancer screening awareness.”

He explained what the White Ribbon Project means to him and the project participation that he observed during the IASLC 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer.

“It’s been a great story and it’s a great organization to be affiliated with. They’ve done a tremendous amount of good work raising lung cancer awareness,” Dr. Gieske said. “As you walk around the World Conference on Lung Cancer, you’ll see these white ribbons, different folks have them and they use them in pictures, and it’s been a very gratifying part of my career to be part of this organization.”