lcfamerica.org

Start with three things: confirm your lung cancer type and stage, ask which biomarker and staging tests will guide treatment, and line up a care team you trust. The Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA) frames this moment around a simple idea — you have options, and knowledge is power. Its "Recently diagnosed with lung cancer?" section points new patients toward understanding their diagnosis, the questions to ask, and the most important next steps.

First, know what kind of lung cancer you have

Lung cancer is not one disease. Treatment differs substantially between small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and further by subtype and molecular features. LCFA's patient stories show why this matters: survivors describe diagnoses tagged with terms like adenocarcinoma, EGFR, ALK+, and targeted therapy — details that shaped their treatment paths.

Ask your care team to state, in plain terms:

• Type: small cell or non-small cell, and the subtype (for example, adenocarcinoma)
• Stage: how far the cancer has spread, and what staging tests were used
• Molecular/biomarker results: whether testing has been done or is pending, and what it showed

LCFA's current homepage highlights that small cell lung cancer treatments are evolving — chemotherapy is no longer the only option, with immunotherapies and clinical trials expanding choices. That is a reason to ask about all available options rather than assume one standard path.

Key questions to ask your doctor

Use these as a starting list; add your own as you learn more.

1. What is my exact diagnosis — type, subtype, and stage?
2. What tests do I need next (imaging, biopsy, biomarker testing), and when will results be back?
3. Will my treatment be chosen based on biomarker results? If so, which ones?
4. What are my treatment options, and what is the goal of each (cure, control, symptom relief)?
5. Are clinical trials an option for me? How would I find out?
6. What side effects should I expect, and who do I call when something goes wrong?
7. Should I get a second opinion, and how do I arrange one?
8. Who is on my care team, and who coordinates between them?

LCFA's new-patient guidance explicitly asks: What questions should I be asking? What are the most important next steps? Writing questions down before appointments and bringing someone to take notes makes those conversations more useful.

Important next steps after diagnosis

• Get your records organized. Collect pathology reports, imaging results, and test results in one place so every clinician sees the same picture.
• Ask about biomarker testing. LCFA's survivor stories repeatedly reference biomarker testing and targeted therapy — testing can reveal whether a treatment aimed at a specific molecular feature is relevant.
• Understand your staging workup. Staging determines which treatments are appropriate; ask what has been done and what remains.
• Build your support system. LCFA offers patient stories and a monthly newsletter with research updates and survivor experiences, which can help you see how others navigated the same period.
• Keep a symptom and question log. Bring it to each visit so nothing gets lost between appointments.

Using LCFA's resources

LCFA is a nonprofit focused on funding lung cancer research and improving survivorship. For a newly diagnosed patient, its most useful entry points are:

The site also includes a "Word of the Day" glossary feature explaining clinical terms — helpful when a pathology report or scan note contains unfamiliar language.

What to keep in mind

LCFA's materials are educational and inspirational, not a substitute for advice from your own oncology team. Treatment decisions depend on your specific diagnosis, test results, and overall health. Use the site to prepare better questions and to see how other patients have approached the same uncertainty — then bring those questions to the clinicians who know your case.

You can support the Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA) by donating to fund its research mission, subscribing to its monthly email updates, and following the organization on social media. The site also points visitors toward advocacy and awareness as part of its work. These options come directly from what LCFA presents on lcfamerica.org; specific donation amounts, membership tiers, and any login requirements are not described there, so treat those details as things to confirm on the site itself.

Donate to Fund Lung Cancer Research

LCFA describes its mission as improving survivorship by funding transformative lung cancer research. On the homepage, the donation appeal is framed around that mission: "Your support is vital to our mission of funding transformative science and improving survivorship."

The page also connects donations to people and outcomes rather than abstract goals:

• A quote from Kim Norris, Co-Founder and President, says: "Your generosity is shaping future leaders in lung cancer research."
• Patient advocate Brandi Bryant is quoted: "Research is HOPE. Research will hopefully have me sitting here in #GiveMe20. Give me 20 years post-diagnosis."
• Dr. Christine Lovly, an LCFA Young Investigator, says: "There is such tremendous hope for all patients with lung cancer right now."

What to expect: The site does not list suggested amounts, recurring-gift options, or payment methods in the available material. If you want to give in a specific way (monthly, memorial gift, employer matching), check the donation page or contact LCFA directly before assuming an option exists.

Subscribe to the Monthly Newsletter

LCFA offers a monthly email update described as covering "inspiring stories, groundbreaking research, and the early career researchers you're helping to support." The sign-up section is headed "Stay Connected" with the line "Hope, Research, and Impact in Your Inbox."

How to sign up: The form asks for an email address and a name (first and last), then a submit action. The page includes a note that a field is used for validation and should be left unchanged — that is a spam-protection measure, not something you fill in.

What you get: Monthly updates on patient stories, research news, and early-career researchers. This is the lowest-commitment way to stay informed if you are not ready to donate.

Follow LCFA on Social Media

The homepage includes a Facebook link among its "Stay Connected" options. Social channels are where LCFA shares stories and updates between newsletters. The available material names Facebook specifically; check the site footer or contact page for any other channels rather than assuming which platforms LCFA uses.

Engage With Advocacy and Awareness

LCFA's content emphasizes advocacy and awareness alongside research funding. Survivor stories on the site are tagged with topics such as advocacy, awareness, biomarker testing, and early detection — for example, Michelle's story about adenocarcinoma and Jeff Stibelman's story about advocating for lung cancer research.

Ways to participate that fit this framing:

• Share patient stories to raise awareness, especially around early detection and biomarker testing.
• Point newly diagnosed patients to LCFA's "Recently diagnosed with lung cancer?" section, which covers what questions to ask and important next steps.
• Follow the researchers LCFA features, such as Zhen Zeng, PhD (oncology mapping of cancer-fighting cells in tumors), Jonathan Villena-Vargas, MD (T cell PD-1 response in early-stage NSCLC), and Kellie Smith, PhD (immunology lab work), to stay informed about what funded research looks like.

Choose Based on What You Want to Do

If your main interest is understanding what LCFA funds before giving, start with the "Meet the Researchers" section and the small cell lung cancer treatment updates, then decide whether to donate or simply subscribe.

The Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA), at lcfamerica.org, is a U.S. nonprofit whose stated mission is to improve survivorship by funding transformative lung cancer research. Its site is built for four audiences: people recently diagnosed with lung cancer and their families, researchers, donors, and anyone looking to follow or support lung cancer science. You can use the site to read plain-language treatment and diagnosis guidance, browse funded researchers and survivor stories, and sign up for a monthly email update.

What the organization says it does

LCFA describes its core work as funding research and turning that research into longer, better lives for patients. The homepage frames this in a few concrete ways:

• Research funding as the central mission. The stated goal is "funding transformative lung cancer research" to improve survivorship.
• Support for early-career scientists. A quote from Dr. Christine Lovly refers to the "LCFA Young Investigator" program, and a donor message says gifts are "shaping future leaders in lung cancer research." This indicates the foundation directs money toward researchers early in their careers, not only established labs.
• Patient-facing education and hope. Survivor stories and a "Recently diagnosed" section sit alongside the research content, positioning the site as both a science funder and a patient resource.

What you'll find on the site

The homepage is organized into a few recurring blocks, each aimed at a different reader:

The research profiles are specific, not generic

The "Meet the Researchers" section lists named investigators with short project descriptions, for example:

• Zhen Zeng, PhD (Oncology): mapping where cancer-fighting cells are located within tumors.
• Jonathan Villena-Vargas, MD (Thoracic Surgeon): characterizing T cell PD-1 response in tumor-draining lymph nodes of early-stage NSCLC patients.
• Kellie Smith, PhD: leading an immunology lab in cancer research.

For a donor, this is the most useful part of the site: it shows the kind of work being funded rather than only stating that research matters.

The survivor stories double as a map of lung cancer subtypes

The story tags are worth noticing because they show the range of experiences the foundation covers: non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), adenocarcinoma, EGFR and ALK+ mutations, targeted therapy, biomarker testing, chemotherapy, surgery, early detection, advocacy, and lung cancer in non-smokers and veterans. If you are looking for someone whose situation resembles yours, filtering by these tags is a practical way to start.

How to use the site, depending on who you are

If you or a family member was just diagnosed: start with the "Recently diagnosed" section, which frames the next steps as questions to ask and options to understand. Then read the treatment explainer for the relevant cancer type (the homepage highlights small cell lung cancer) and look for survivor stories tagged with your subtype or mutation. The site is educational; it does not present itself as a source of individual medical advice, so bring what you learn to your care team.

If you want to support the work: review the researcher profiles to see what is being funded, then use the donation prompts on the homepage. The site does not publish pricing, grant amounts, or a fee structure in the material available, so treat any giving decision as one to confirm directly with the organization.

If you are a researcher or journalist: the researcher profiles and the "View all" links are the fastest route to who is funded and on what topics. The site's own description of its mission is the citable summary of its purpose.

If you just want updates: the "Stay Connected" form asks for an email and name and promises monthly updates on stories, research, and early-career researchers.

What the site does not tell you

The available material does not include grant application details, financial disclosures, eligibility rules for funding, or a full organizational history. It also does not state whether any resources are free versus gated, so don't assume access terms either way. If you need those specifics—for example, before applying for a grant or making a significant donation—contact the foundation through the site rather than relying on the homepage.

The clearest takeaway: LCFA is a research-funding nonprofit with a public-facing education layer. Its most distinctive content is the named early-career researcher profiles and the subtype-tagged survivor stories, which together show both where the money goes and what living with lung cancer looks like across different diagnoses.

The Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA) funds transformative lung cancer research aimed at improving survivorship, and its site highlights both established and early-career researchers working on tumor mapping, immune response, and immunotherapy. The clearest way to see what LCFA funds is to look at the researchers it features and the specific questions their projects address — from locating cancer-fighting cells inside tumors to understanding immune activity in early-stage disease.

What LCFA says its research mission is

LCFA describes its mission as "dedicated to improving survivorship by funding transformative lung cancer research." That framing matters: the foundation presents research funding as the path to better patient outcomes, not as an end in itself. The site reinforces this with patient voices, including survivor Brandi Bryant's line, "Research is HOPE," and Co-Founder and President Kim Norris's statement that donor support is "shaping future leaders in lung cancer research."

Researchers and projects featured on the site

The "Meet the Researchers" section lists specific investigators with a short description of each project. The examples shown on the page:

These three examples show the range of LCFA's research interests: spatial mapping of immune cells within tumors, immune checkpoint biology in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer, and immunology lab work more broadly. The site also references "Immunotherapy in Early Stage Lung Cancer" as a research theme.

Support for early-career researchers

LCFA's "Young Investigator" program is visible in the site's materials. Dr. Christine Lovly, identified as an "LCFA Young Investigator," is quoted saying, "There is such tremendous hope for all patients with lung cancer right now." The foundation frames this support as building future research leaders — the same idea behind the statement that generosity is "shaping future leaders in lung cancer research." If you want to know which specific investigators currently hold Young Investigator awards, the "Meet the Researchers" and "View all" links on the site are the place to check, since the homepage shows only a sample.

How the research connects to treatment advances

The site ties funded research directly to evolving treatment options. Its featured article, "Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatments Are Evolving," notes that "chemotherapy is no longer the only option for small cell lung cancer" and that "from immunotherapies to clinical trials, groundbreaking research is expanding choices and helping patients live better." This is the clearest statement on the page of the mechanism LCFA is betting on: research funding → new treatment options → better and longer lives for patients.

The survivor stories on the site echo the same link. Featured stories carry tags such as biomarker testing, targeted therapy, EGFR, ALK+, and immunotherapy-adjacent topics — the areas where research is changing what a diagnosis means. For example, Michelle's story is tagged with biomarker testing and targeted therapy, and Jeff Stibelman's story with EGFR and stage 4 targeted therapy.

If you want to follow or evaluate LCFA's research

• To see current projects: start with the "Meet the Researchers" section and use "View all" to browse beyond the homepage sample.
• To follow progress: the site offers a monthly email newsletter with "inspiring stories, groundbreaking research, and the early career researchers you're helping to support," plus Facebook updates.
• To judge fit: compare the listed projects against your interest — the current examples lean toward tumor immunology, immune cell mapping, and early-stage NSCLC immune response rather than, say, screening policy or epidemiology.

The site does not publish grant amounts, application deadlines, or a full funded-project database on the pages shown here, so for those details you would need to check LCFA's research or grant pages directly rather than infer them from the homepage.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) treatment is no longer limited to chemotherapy. According to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA), immunotherapies and clinical trials are expanding the choices available to patients and helping them live better. The practical takeaway: if you or someone you know is facing an SCLC diagnosis, it is worth asking the care team specifically about immunotherapy options and whether a clinical trial is appropriate—these are now part of the treatment conversation, not just future possibilities.

What Has Changed in SCLC Treatment

For years, chemotherapy was the standard backbone of small cell lung cancer care. LCFA's overview states plainly that "chemotherapy is no longer the only option for small cell lung cancer." Two developments drive that shift:

• Immunotherapies — treatments that engage the immune system, now part of the broader treatment landscape for SCLC.
• Clinical trials — studies that give patients access to newer approaches and help researchers determine what works.

LCFA frames this as "next-gen breakthroughs," with research "expanding choices and helping patients live better." The emphasis is on options and quality of life, not a single universal protocol.

Why This Matters for Patients and Families

A small cell lung cancer diagnosis has historically felt like a narrow set of paths. The evolution described by LCFA changes the questions patients should be prepared to ask. Rather than assuming chemotherapy is the only route, patients can treat immunotherapy and trial eligibility as topics to raise directly with their oncology team.

LCFA's site also points newly diagnosed patients toward foundational questions—what to ask, what the most important next steps are—and reminds them that "knowledge is power." That framing is useful: understanding the range of options is a prerequisite for participating in decisions about care.

Where to Learn More

LCFA provides several entry points for patients and families who want to go deeper:

The survivor stories are worth noting for a practical reason: several describe experiences with biomarker testing, targeted therapy, and advocacy. They illustrate how patients have navigated treatment decisions and what they learned along the way.

A Note on Scope

LCFA is a research-funding and awareness organization; its materials describe treatment trends and research directions rather than prescribing care. Decisions about immunotherapy, clinical trial participation, or any specific treatment belong with a qualified oncology team who knows the individual case. Use LCFA's resources to build questions and context before those conversations—not as a substitute for them.

For anyone starting out, the most direct step is LCFA's small cell lung cancer treatment page, followed by the newly diagnosed guidance if the diagnosis is recent.