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ACS CANCER PROGRAMS UPDATES |
News from the ACS 2019 Quality and Safety Conference: Translating Quality Measure into Quality Outcomes
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 Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, FACP, FASCO
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In a presentation at the recent ACS 2019 Quality and Safety Conference, Commission on Cancer (CoC) Chair Lawrence Shulman, MD, FACP, FASCO, reviewed the critical role data plays in understanding and improving performance.
In his presentation, “Translating Quality Measures into Quality Outcomes,” Dr. Shulman of the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center discussed how assessing quality measures and providing results over time to participating programs leads to improvements. He cited the case of Colon 12 node measure, where performance increased dramatically in the years following the measure’s introduction, with improved survival linked to this improvement.
“We can never assume our cancer care and outcomes are optimal and must always assess, in a scientific manner, the quality of care and patient outcomes, including survival, if we are to improve and provide optimal care,” said Dr. Shulman. “These issues have profound impact on the quality of care we deliver to our patients, and the resultant outcomes. To give all cancer patients in the U.S. the best chance to survive their cancer, we must continually strive to improve and maximize the quality of the care we deliver across the spectrum of our health care institutions.”
Daniel Boffa, MD, FACS, of Yale Medicine praised Dr. Shulman’s commitment to improving the quality of care through quality measures.
“So often the highest levels of administration are forced away from the inner workings of the enterprise over which they preside,” said Dr. Boffa. “I think Dr. Shulman showed the audience that not only is he completely dialed into the National Cancer Database (NCDB), but he also is not accepting the quality measures at face value and is leading the charge to test their validity and impact.”
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SERVICE SHOWCASE | Advertisement
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Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is actively recruiting general and trauma surgeons with experience in emergency obstetrics for international missions in developing countries. Learn more
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Deadline approaching for CAnswer Forum LIVE questions
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The deadline to submit questions for the next CAnswer Forum LIVE session is September 1. Help us make this an important and valuable session by submitting your questions ASAP!
CAnswer Forum Live is a 60-minute webinar open to staff at current and prospective CoC, National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) and National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (NAPRC) programs. The next webinar will take place on September 25, 2019, at 12:00 noon, Central Time.
Register today for this event. Go to the CAnswer Forum LIVE web page to learn more about this program and to access recordings of previous broadcasts. For additional information, contact Asa Carter at acarter@facs.org.
No accreditation fee increases planned for 2020
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There will be no fee increases in 2020 for any of the accreditation program categories of the CoC, the NAPBC, or the NAPRC.
The 2020 category-based fee schedules for both CoC- and NAPRC-accredited programs are available on the CoC Datalinks Activity Menu under Resources. For CoC-accredited programs, cancer program administrators, cancer committee chairs, cancer liaison physicians and CTRs can download the schedule; other Datalinks users who require this information should contact staff in these roles at their facilities. For NAPRC-accredited programs, the 2020 fee schedule in CoC Datalinks can be downloaded by staff contacts designated by the facility.
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Don't miss these ACS Cancer Programs sessions at Clinical Congress
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American College of Surgeons (ACS) Cancer Programs will offer a wide range of educational sessions at the ACS Clinical Congress 2019. Scheduled programming includes:
Sunday, October 27
- Designing and Running a Prospective Surgical Clinical
Trial Didactic
Monday, October 28
- Panel Session: Multidisciplinary Management of Breast Cancer
- Panel Session: Clinical Trials in Personalized Medicine in Oncology
Tuesday, October 29
- Special Interest Session: Cracking the Code to Clinical Trial Enrollment: How to Start and Who Can Help (full day drop-in session)
- Panel Session: Optimizing Outcomes of Rectal Cancer in 2019
- Panel Session: Gastric and Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer: Latest Advances
- Panel Session: Management of the Nodal Basin in the Melanoma Patient
- Panel Session: Management of Peritoneal Malignancies: Emerging Data in Heated Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) and Other Strategies
Wednesday, October 30
- Meet-the-Expert Session: Improving Outcomes in Bladder Cancer Surgery: Important Advances in Care
- Named Lecture: Pancreatic Cancer: Progress and Prospects
- Panel Session: What’s New in the Management of Pancreatic Cancer?
- Panel Session: Immunotherapy in the Treatment of Solid Tumors: Emerging Roles of the Surgeon
To learn more about ACS Cancer Programs while in San Francisco, visit ACS Central in the Exhibit Hall.
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New podcast features AJCC leaders
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The Annals of Surgical Oncology and the Society of Surgical Oncology have launched a podcast series, “Speaking of SurgOnc,” hosted by Frederick L. (Rick) Greene, MD, FACS, emeritus member of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Executive Committee. Recent episodes have included interviews with AJCC Chair David R. Byrd, MD, FACS, on the 8th edition of the TNM staging system; incoming Vice-Chair Jeffrey E. Gershenwald, MD, FACS, on melanoma staging; and Stephen B. Edge, MD, FACS, on breast cancer staging.
NAPBC workshop adds best practice panel
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The NAPBC has added a best practices session to its Pursing Excellence through NAPBC Accreditation workshop on September 20 in Denver.
Best Practices: Challenges and Solutions will feature the following three speakers:
David Chi, MD, FACS, NAPBC contact at the Breast Center at Los Robles, Los Robles Hospital, Thousand Oaks, CA, will discuss the Breast Cancer Journal Club program and how it can help centers fulfill NAPBC standard 5.1.
Maureen Chung, MD, PhD, FACS, medical director, Southcoast Health Breast Care Program in Fall River, MA, will discuss weekly pathology/radiology correlation conferences, including the breast surgeons to enhance treatment discussion for patients with malignant and non-malignant diseases of the breast, NAPBC Standard 2.19.
Annette Hargadon, MSN, RNC-OB, CBCN, nurse navigator at the Comprehensive Breast Center and Cancer Program at Riddle Hospital/Main Line Health in Media, PA, will speak on NAPBC Standard 2.20, Survivorship Care Plans Using a Multidisciplinary Team.
Register today to learn more about these solutions and refresh your memory if you are up for reaccreditation in the near future.
HOTEL DEADLINE EXTENDED! The deadline to book your hotel room at the Hilton Denver City Center is now Thursday, August 29. Be sure to book your hotel by then to receive the discounted $179/night rate.
STORE surgery coding for breast revised
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The surgery coding instructions for the breast primary site will be updated in the next STORE 2018 revision to reflect the following:
- A total (simple) mastectomy removes all breast tissue, the nipple, and areolar complex. An axillary dissection is not done, but sentinel lymph nodes may be removed.
- For single primaries involving both breasts use code 76.
- If the contralateral breast reveals a second primary, each breast is abstracted separately. The surgical procedure is codded 41 for the first primary. The surgical code for the contralateral breast is coded to the procedure performed on that site.
The prior instruction in FORDS/STORE for single primaries only — code removal of the contralateral breast under the data item Surgical Procedure/Other Site (NAACCR Item #1294) and/or Surgical Procedure/Other Site at This Facility (NAACCR Item #674) — will be removed. It is not applicable.
HEALTH CARE NEWS AND UPDATES |
MedPage Today
Obesity-associated cancers are affecting people at earlier ages in the U.S., a population-based study found.
The analysis of more than 2.6 million incident cases from 2000 to 2016 found that the percentage of new cases of obesity-associated cancer occurring in individuals 65 and older decreased over this interval, whereas it increased in those ages 50-64, said Siran Koroukian, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, and colleagues.
The trend did not extend to individuals younger than 50, however, as the proportion of obesity-related cancers occurring in that group decreased as well.
READ MORE
Purdue University
Current drugs to treat malignant tumors may be successful at reaching the tumor site but often fail to fully reach the cancerous cells in tumors.
The problem persists because tumor models used in cancer research and produced by cell culture in laboratories are not nearly the size of the actual tumors in patients. So even when a drug appears to be effective in the tiny tumors in research labs, they may perform much differently for patients.
READ MORE
Medical News Today
Cancer's ability to spread throughout the body can turn a curable case into an aggressive and sometimes fatal one. A team of engineers and cancer biologists may have found a way to slow down, and even stop, the migration of breast cancer cells.
READ MORE
Interesting Engineering
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of cancer that begins in the brain. It has an incidence of two to three per 100,000 adults per year and accounts for 52% of all primary brain tumors. Glioblastoma consists of biologically aggressive tumors that present unique treatment challenges and typically results in death in the first 15 months after diagnosis. Now, new research by Sussex scientists could soon see the development of a blood test to diagnose it.
READ MORE
ScienceDaily
A team of scientists at UC San Francisco and the National Institutes of Health have achieved another CRISPR first, one which may fundamentally alter the way scientists study brain diseases.
In a paper published August 15 in the journal Neuron, the researchers describe a technique that uses a special version of CRISPR developed at UCSF to systematically alter the activity of genes in human neurons generated from stem cells, the first successful merger of stem cell-derived cell types and CRISPR screening technologies.
READ MORE
The Scientist
A new cryopreservation bank offers customers the chance to stash away their T cells for use in future cancer treatments. Using a similar model to cord blood banks, the startup Cell Vault announced that it has already raised $1 million from Silicon Valley investors in an initial round of funding. The field of T cell–based cancer therapies has rapidly blossomed in recent years, but at this point, scientists doubt the utility of stowing healthy T cells in a freezer, just in case.
READ MORE
Medical Xpress
Precision cancer medicine requires personalized biomarkers to identify patients who will benefit from specific cancer therapies. In an effort to improve the accuracy of predictions about prognosis for patients with breast cancer and the efficacy of personalized therapy, University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have developed a method to precisely identify individual patients who have aggressive breast cancer.
READ MORE
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Colby Horton, Vice President of Publishing, 469-420-2601 | Download media kit Ashley Harrington, Senior Content Editor, 469-420-2642 | Contribute news
Disclaimer: The Brief is a digest of news selected for the American College of Surgeons Cancer Programs from thousands of sources by the editors of MultiBriefs, an independent organization that also manages and sells advertising. The American College of Surgeons and Cancer Programs do not endorse any of the advertised products and services. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not of the American College of Surgeons, and the Cancer Programs.
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