Background The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a national non-profit that aims to eliminate cancer via research and lobbying, the latter of which is done through the Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). ACS CAN hosts Cancer Action Days for survivors and other people involved with ACS to lobby at their state government offices. The bills lobbied for this year were on access to lung cancer screening, creating an adult vaccination record, and protecting genetic information from insurance calculation. It would be important to know if the process of lobbying increases the lobbyists’ agreement with the bills.

Methods A questionnaire was drafted using the yearly questions associated with Cancer Action Day that captured demographic data as well as bill opinions graded by 7 point Likert score. The questionnaire was duplicated into a pre- and post- survey with conglomerate data collection. The surveys were administered at the New York State Capitol on 5/7/24.

Results 42 respondents filled out the pre-survey, 30 respondents filled out the post-survey, and of these there were 20 people who filled out both surveys allowing us to compare these groups. The people who were at Cancer Action Day were cancer survivors (those who completed cancer treatment, 37%), cancer thrivers (those undergoing treatment, 6%), caregivers (those who take care of people with cancer, 20%), lobbyists (11%), and other (26%). Ninety six percent of attendees knew someone with cancer, including themselves (46%), a family member (21%), a work colleague (4%), and more than one person (25%). Most people who attended Cancer Action Day were in the age range of 55-65 (31%), followed by 45-55 (24%), with the median age of participants being in the range of 45-55. The average Likert score of satisfaction on access to lung cancer screening increased from 3 to 4 in pre to post survey (T-test unequal variances, 0.064>0.05). The average Likert score of agreement on increasing vaccinations for adult cancers remained at 6 (0.262>0.05). The average Likert score of agreement on protecting genetic information decreased from 7 to 6(0.274>0.05).

Conclusion The increased Likert score for lung cancer, and the decrease for genetic information may indicate that through lobbying individuals learn more about the disparities in access to these levels or care. In conclusion, the ACS CAN lobbying changes people’s opinions on current political issues in cancer without statistical significance. For future research, it would be important to expand the sample size of the study by incorporating multiple lobbying events.