Abstract 1615P
Background
Crowdfunding is internet practice of funding a project or an activity by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people. There has been a progressive increase in the use of crowdfunding for licensed and unlicensed anticancer treatments by the general public. We set out to analyse what the current non-United States (US) GoFundMe cancer pages were requesting monetary donations for in order to get a deeper understanding of this unregulated activity.
Methods
We reviewed 150 non-US GoFundMe webpages between November 2019 to January 2020. US webpages were excluded on account of different healthcare systems, with the majority requesting basic health care not covered by patient health insurance. Data collected included clinicopathological details such as age, gender, cancer type and stage of disease in addition to the type of treatments being sought for funding, total amount of funding sought and the quantity of donors.
Results
Of the 150 pages reviewed, 83% requestors were adults and 64% were of female gender. The majority of the requestors had brain cancer, followed by breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The median amount of money requested was €48,205 (€1,171 – €588,759). Of the 150 pages, 89 were from the UK (59%), 24 from Ireland (16%), 12 from Australia (8%) and 10 from Canada (7%). The majority of patients request financial support for their anticancer care (n=38, 25%). Requests for immunotherapy were the second most common (21%) followed by alternative therapies (19%) and funding for an approved drug not financed by the specific health system (12%). The most money requested was for Immunotherapy (median €187064).
Conclusions
Crowdfunding using webpages such as GoFundMe are platforms by which patients can request donors to fund their anticancer treatment. Our analysis has identified that these platforms are predominantly used for requesting financial support, but worryingly, a large proportion are requesting immunotherapy for unlicensed indications and alternative therapies with no evidence base to support its use. Future efforts to improve patient education are required to better manage this route of cancer funding.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
S. Iqbal: Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Janssen; Ipsen. D. Collins: Honoraria (self): Pfizer; Eli Lilly; Honoraria (self), Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Roche; Genmab; AstraZeneca; Advisory/Consultancy, Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: MSD; Advisory/Consultancy: SEATTLE GENETICS.