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| ACS CANCER PROGRAMS UPDATES |
ACS
The American College of Surgeons has issued a call for abstracts to be presented at its 2019 Quality and Safety Conference, July 19-22, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The deadline for submitting abstracts is Feb. 1, 2019.
Individuals at participating sites are encouraged to submit a 250-word abstract for poster and/or podium presentation. The abstract should relate to surgical quality improvement initiatives; including the development, implementation, or validation of best practices. We are also interested in operational best practices relating to workflow around collecting data and reporting.
Please note that abstracts which have been submitted or recently presented at other meetings are eligible for presentation at the ACS Quality and Safety Conference. In the view of ACS, previous presentation of a paper does not prohibit the presentation or publication of the material at the Quality and Safety Conference.
If you have an idea, start reaching out to your colleagues today. Get your team together and start planning your projects now.
For more information or to submit an abstract, please click here.
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ACS
Editor’s note: The following is an edited version of the Presidential Address that Dr. Maier delivered at Convocation at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2018 in Boston. The presentation has been modified to conform with Bulletin style.
Good evening and welcome to the 2018 Initiates of the ACS and their families and friends, as well as our newly elected and current Honorary Fellows and esteemed guests.
To our Initiates — congratulations! You represent our largest class ever, with 1,359 coming from the U.S. and Canada and 613 from many other countries around the world—a truly global representation of surgery today. Give yourself and your colleagues a round of applause. You each richly deserve this recognition.
This occasion is indeed momentous. You have just earned entry into the ACS and have taken a major step in solidifying your standing in our profession. Surgery is not only a great profession, but also the best profession in medicine. It is a profession, I would argue, that will provide you with the recognition and rewards that you deserve based on the years of hard work, dedication, and commitment it takes to become, and remain, the best surgeon you can be. And, as a surgeon, you will help to sustain our profession through self-regulation, altruism, and constant demonstration of the highest ethical values.
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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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NIH
State Cancer Profiles characterizes the cancer burden in a standardized manner to motivate action, integrate surveillance into cancer control planning, characterize areas and demographic groups, and expose health disparities. The focus is on cancer sites with evidence based control interventions. Interactive graphics and maps provide support for deciding where to focus cancer control efforts. State Cancer Profiles is one tool of the Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T. portal which provides access to web-based resources.
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ACS
Cancer Programs of the American College of Surgeons is excited to announce two projects focused on improving the Commission on Cancer (CoC) accreditation standards and the National Cancer Database (NCDB) data collection processes.
CoC Standards Revision Project
The CoC has launched a project to review, analyze, and improve the standards that CoC accredited programs must meet each year. This project aims to ensure that the CoC’s standards result in the improvement of patient care, are clearly interpretable, and are accurately measuring the quality of a cancer program. It is anticipated that the revised CoC standards manual will be published in Fall 2019. Accredited programs will be expected to implement the revised standards on January 1, 2020.
Importantly, no changes are being made to the standards in 2019. Programs should proceed with meeting the standards as outlined in the 2016 Cancer Program Standards for the 2019 calendar year.
Because this project is in its infancy, we do not have concrete details to share at this time regarding what the revisions may be. We are excited to share progress as decisions are finalized. Please watch for official announcements in the CoC Brief and on the CoC News page.
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U.S. Preventitive Services Task Forces
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF or Task Force) has released its “Eighth Annual Report to Congress on High-Priority Evidence Gaps for Clinical Preventive Services.”
In 2018, the USPSTF continued to fulfill its mission of improving the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screening tests, counseling about healthy behaviors, and preventive medications. These recommendations help clinicians and their patients make informed health care decisions.
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CRP
New studies are identified suggesting that more frequent or intensive surveillance testing may not result in earlier detection of cancer recurrence. Read the full article.
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NCBD
We are pleased to announce the NCDB reporting tools have been updated to include cases diagnosed in 2016. This update also includes newly diagnosed or updated cases for earlier diagnosis years submitted by CoC-accredited cancer programs during the 2018 NCDB Call for Data.
Updated data has been published in:
- Hospital Comparison Benchmark Reports
- Cancer Program Practice Profile Reports (CP3R)
- Public NCDB Benchmark Reports
Users are now able to view 2016 diagnoses in CP3R, the Hospital Comparison Benchmark Reports and the Public NCDB Benchmark Reports.
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ACS
The Commission on Cancer (CoC) invites all practicing physicians at CoC-accredited programs to submit an application to join the CoC Surveyor Team. If you are passionate about the CoC and its Standards, we are looking for you! Consider becoming part of the CoC Surveyor Team and share your commitment for providing patients with high-quality, patient-centered, multidisciplinary care.
In order to meet the ever-increasing number of programs interested in CoC accreditation, we need your support and expertise. Click here to access the application.
If you have questions, please contact accreditation@facs.org.
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ACS
At Clinical Congress 2018, the inaugural SurgeonsVoice Advocate of the Year award was presented to Alan G. Thorson, MD, FACS, a colon and rectal surgeon in Omaha, Nebraska, for his commitment to the American College of Surgeons (ACS) advocacy and political efforts, particularly through his involvement with the Commission on Cancer. Thorson will also be featured in the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons.
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ACS
April 7–9, 2019 – Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois
The 2019 Cluster Programs will be three individual one-day programs on consecutive days, in one location, for your convenience. You may attend just one program or all three. Sign up here for further information as it becomes available.
AJCC
The AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, Eighth Edition is the first edition to have an electronic book (ebook) version. It is available for purchase now on Amazon and is the most current version of the manual (September 2018).
Since 1977, the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) has published eight editions of cancer staging manuals using contemporary, evidenced-based literature to build a common language of cancer for the care of cancer patients by clinicians and for the cancer surveillance community. The print version of the eighth edition was first published in October 2016 and went into effect for all cancer cases diagnosed on or after Jan. 1, 2018. The eighth edition presents evidence-based revisions for the staging of cancer for a number of organ sites. The chapters include the rationale and rules for staging; the definitions of tumor, lymph node involvement and metastasis; stage groupings; and histologic grade.
There have been updates since the first printing of the eighth edition, all of which are incorporated in this ebook version available through Amazon’s Kindle. The Kindle version can be used on any device (PC, MAC, iPhone, iPad, Android) with the free Kindle app. The electronic version allows for highlighting, adding notes and bookmarks and creating flashcards. The AJCC has a curated FAQ document to address common questions that can be accessed at cancerstaging.org. All other questions related to the eighth edition can be sent to ajcc@facs.org.
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| HEALTH CARE NEWS AND UPDATES |
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
A new CDC study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, looks at lung cancer screenings during 2010 and 2015 that met the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) criteria for lung cancer screening and those that did not meet the criteria. The USPSTF recommends yearly lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) for people who have a history or heavy smoking, who currently smoke or have quit within the last 15 years, and are between 55 and 80 years old. The study shows that the population meeting the USPSTF criteria for lung cancer screening is declining (decreased 15 percent between 2010 and 2015) and the occurrence of appropriate lung cancer screening is low (4.4 percent in 2015). Study results also show that the number of adults inappropriately screened for lung cancer greatly exceeds the number screened according to USPSTF recommendations. To reach the potential benefits of lung cancer screening, it would be beneficial to have better processes to appropriately identify and get eligible individuals screened, and screen with a USPSTF-recommended test.
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Cancer Therapy Advisor
To reduce differences in cancer morbidity and mortality across different communities, cancer screening outreach efforts should be tailored to vulnerable subpopulations, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Though a recent but unrelated study found that from 1991 to 2015, there was a 26 percent decline in cancer mortality across cancer types, the current study appears to suggest that a large portion of the reduction may not have been directly due to improvements in screenings for certain cancer types.
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Medical Xpress
Today, breast-conserving surgery is widely used for the treatment of breast cancer. As a result, finding exactly where a tumor ends and where the healthy tissue begins is an important — but difficult — task for cancer surgeons. Patients hope to keep as much of their healthy breast as possible, but not removing enough can lead to recurrences. At present, the most popular method for finding boundaries is frozen section analysis, but it is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Now, however, in a study published in Advanced Science, scientists have developed a way to sensitively, selectively, and quickly detect surgical margins by using a "click-to-sense" acrolein probe that conjugates with the components of live breast cancer cells.
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Medical Xpress
A study of more than half a million blood samples has allowed scientists to pinpoint the risk factors for a rare type of leukaemia, enabling them to predict if someone will develop the disease eight years before symptoms appear and opening the door to preventative treatments.
Acute myeloid leukaemia is a rare cancer usually detected at an advanced stage. "It usually comes out of the blue," said Dr. Liran Shlush of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. "Most patients survive just a few weeks or months after diagnosis."
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Standord Medicine
A cellular culprit — as well as a possible treatment — for a common, sometimes life-threating post-surgical complication has been identified by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The condition arises when abnormal fibrous connections called adhesions form after abdominal surgery, tethering our normally slippery organs together or anchoring them to the abdominal wall. Symptoms can include chronic pain, female infertility, bowel obstruction and, occasionally, death. According to the National Institutes of Health, the annual cost of treating post-surgical adhesions in the United States surpasses $1 billion.
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Inside Philanthropy
Pancreatic cancer: You don’t want it. It's identified by the United States Congress as one of the two worst cancers to get. Conventional treatments of surgery and chemotherapy do little to slow the cancer’s growth. Even with treatment, most patients live only about six months after diagnosis.
Can philanthropy provide not just needed funding, but perhaps influence the supply of major research grants from the federal government itself?
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UC San Diego Health
A randomized clinical trial involving 97 medical centers in 20 countries, including Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, found that treating patients who have chemotherapy-resistant head and neck cancer with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab is more effective and less toxic than standard chemotherapy, reports an international team of researchers. Previous research had shown that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was safe and effective for treating patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma whose disease had progressed while on or after receiving standard chemotherapy. Data from this clinical trial takes the research a step further by comparing the immunotherapy drug head-to-head to three go-to chemotherapy drugs currently used as standard treatment: methotrexate, docetaxel and cetuximab.
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NIH
A scientist from the National Institutes of Health will present promising, early results from a human clinical trial testing a novel gene replacement therapy in people with severe sickle cell disease. Preliminary findings suggest that the approach has an acceptable level of safety and might help patients consistently produce normal red blood cells instead of the sickle-shaped ones that mark this painful, life-threatening disease.
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Medical Xpress
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists will present research marking significant advances against the hematologic cancer multiple myeloma at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting. Their findings provide new insights into the progression of the disease from precursor conditions and suggest approaches for novel treatments.
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| IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES |
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The Brief
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Colby Horton, Vice President of Publishing, 469-420-2601 | Download media kit
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Disclaimer: The Brief is a digest of news selected for the Commission on Cancer (CoC) and the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), both quality programs of the American College of Surgeons, from thousands of sources by the editors of MultiBriefs, an independent organization that also manages and sells advertising. The 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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