Online Crowdfunding for Urologic Cancer Care.

we aimed to characterize the financial needs expressed through online crowdfunding for urologic cancers.

the data used in this study came from the online crowdfunding platform GoFundMe.com. Using an automated software method, we extracted data for campaigns related to urologic cancers. Subsequently, four independent investigators reviewed all extracted data on prostate, bladder, kidney and testicular cancer. We analyzed campaigns' basic characteristics, goals, fundraising, type of treatment and factors associated with successful campaigns.

in total, we identified 2126 individual campaigns, which were related to direct treatment costs (34%), living expenses (17%) or both (48%). Median fundraising amounts were greatest for testicular cancer. Campaigns for both complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) (median $11,000) or CAM alone (median $8527) achieved higher fundraising totals compared with those for conventional treatments alone (median $5362) (p < 0.01). The number of social media shares was independently associated with campaign success and highest quartile of fundraising.

using an automated web-based approach, we identified and characterized online crowdfunding for urologic cancer care. These findings indicated a diverse range of patient needs related to urologic care and factors related to campaigns' success.

Cancers. 2022 Aug 25*** epublish ***

Pawel Rajwa, Philip Hopen, Jakub Wojnarowicz, Julia Kaletka, Iga Paszkiewicz, Olga Lach-Wojnarowicz, Hadi Mostafaei, Wojciech Krajewski, David D'Andrea, Bartosz MaƂkiewicz, Andrzej Paradysz, Guillaume Ploussard, Marco Moschini, Benjamin N Breyer, Benjamin Pradere, Shahrokh F Shariat, Michael S Leapman

Department of Urology, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria., Data Science & Clinical Analytics, New Century Health, Boston, MA 02481, USA., Department of Urology, Medical University of Silesia, 41-800 Zabrze, Poland., Department of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Urology, University Center of Excellence in Urology, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-556 Wroclaw, Poland., Department of Urology, La Croix du Sud Hospital, 31130 Quint Fonsegrives, France., Division of Oncology, Unit of Urology, Urological Research Institute, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, 20132 Milan, Italy., Department of Urology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA., Department of Urology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.