David Spigel, MD at Sarah Cannon discusses an ACCC 2020 presentation entitled Results Show Multidisciplinary Team Approach Needed for Best Care, Outcomes
The project was founded in collaboration with the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and the LUNGevity Foundation, with funding from AstraZeneca. It aims to explore the benefits of care management within a multidisciplinary cancer team, assess and quantify the current awareness by clinicians of emerging criteria for diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, recognize and address obstacles to improving care, and evaluate process improvement models across a range of care settings.
ACCC administered a systematic, double-blind survey to notify the initiative ‘s work with respondents from 160 specific cancer services around the US. The insistence that a multidisciplinary team strategy must be elevated by the oncology care community if patients are to benefit from transformative advances in research and treatment is central to the results. The guidelines are outlined in two newly released abstracts published in the ASCO Virtual Science Program 2020: Enhancing Stage III / IV NSCLC Treatment for Patients: Learnings for Multidisciplinary Teams from the ACCC National Quality Survey, and Identifying High-Quality Care for NSCLC Patients.
The survey established the most difficult obstacles to lung cancer treatment, including lack of community knowledge of screening services, patient transportation, inadequate access to diagnostic procedures, poor biopsy tissue handling, patient adherence to appointment schedules, and lack of multidisciplinary team contact.
In lung cancer treatment, we have a paradox. There are exciting science advancements coming to us at lightning speed, but there is a substantial gap in adapting those advancements to the treatment climate,’ said David Spigel, MD, Chief Scientific Officer and Director of the Tennessee Oncology Lung Cancer Science Program and Chairman of the Steering Committee of the initiative. “Not only is a multidisciplinary approach relevant, but crucial, because lung cancer treatment is the domain of many different disciplines. The beauty of this campaign and what we are all actually seeking to do is to integrate the individuals who care about lung cancer together with their various fields of expertise. The work that we are doing right now is a gateway to more treatment with better success.
Currently, six cancer projects across the U.S. are evaluating process improvement frameworks designed to address obstacles to treatment for patients with stage III / IV NSCLC. Concentration areas include the use of a multidisciplinary team in the assessment of all suspected or diagnosed NSCLC patients, guideline concordant biomarker evaluating rates, and continuum treatment patient education. The ACCC will publish lessons from these models in the coming months and use them to provide tools to the wider oncology community.
Despite breakthroughs in treatment and diagnosis, lung cancer remains the leading cause of death from cancer in the United States, with the vast majority of newly diagnosed cases of lung cancer classified as NSCLC.