Implementation of a Novel Pathway to Integrate Palliative and Oncology Care for Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia in a Community Hospital.

Purpose: Historically, patients with hematologic malignancies are referred to palliative care less often and later in the disease trajectory than those with solid tumors. Recent evidence demonstrates the benefit of early, integrated inpatient palliative care (PC) for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) receiving chemotherapy at academic centers. The current study evaluated the feasibility of implementing standardized early palliative care services (PCS) during hospitalization for AML treatment in a community setting.

Oncologist-Reported Barriers and Facilitators to Offering Cancer Clinical Trials to Their Patients.

NCCN guidelines indicate that cancer clinical trials (CCTs) are the best management for patients with cancer. However, only 5% of patients enroll in them. We examined oncologists' perceived barriers and facilitators to discussing CCTs.

Guideline-Concordant Surgical Care for Lobular Versus Ductal Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

Introduction: Quality of surgical care is understudied for lobular inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), which is less common, more chemotherapy-resistant, and more mammographically occult than ductal IBC. We compared guideline-concordant surgery (modified radical mastectomy [MRM] without immediate reconstruction following chemotherapy) for lobular versus ductal IBC.

Methods:  Female individuals with cT4dM0 lobular and ductal IBC were identified in the National Cancer Database (NCDB) from 2010-2019.

Barriers to Clinical Trial Implementation Among Community Care Centers.

Importance: While an overwhelming majority of patients diagnosed with cancer express willingness to participate in clinical trials, only a fraction will enroll onto a research protocol.

Objective: To identify critical barriers to trial enrollment to translate findings into actionable practice changes that increase cancer clinical trial enrollment.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This survey study included designated site contacts at oncology practices with teams who were highly involved with the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) Community Oncology Research Institute (ACORI) clinical trials activities, all American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)-ACCC collaboration pilot sites, and/or sites providing care to at least 25% African American and Hispanic residents.

Documenting limited health literacy in a clinical setting.

Objective: Health literacy is important in lung cancer care, where treatments and symptoms are difficult to navigate. This study aims to describe how a single-item measure of health literacy can facilitate health literacy system capacity.

Methods: Data include retrospective medical records from 456 patients with lung cancer.

Behavioural economic interventions to embed palliative care in community oncology (BE-EPIC): study protocol for the BE-EPIC randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Palliative care (PC) is a medical specialty focusing on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illnesses such as cancer. Early outpatient specialty PC concurrent with cancer-directed treatment improves quality of life and symptom burden, decreases aggressive end-of-life care and is an evidence-based practice endorsed by national guidelines. However, nearly half of patients with advanced cancer do not receive specialty PC prior to dying.

Toward Predicting 30-Day Readmission Among Oncology Patients: Identifying Timely and Actionable Risk Factors.

Purpose: Predicting 30-day readmission risk is paramount to improving the quality of patient care. In this study, we compare sets of patient-, provider-, and community-level variables that are available at two different points of a patient's inpatient encounter (first 48 hours and the full encounter) to train readmission prediction models and identify possible targets for appropriate interventions that can potentially reduce avoidable readmissions.

Methods: Using electronic health record data from a retrospective cohort of 2,460 oncology patients and a comprehensive machine learning analysis pipeline, we trained and tested models predicting 30-day readmission on the basis of data available within the first 48 hours of admission and from the entire hospital encounter.

An Assessment of the Feasibility and Utility of an ACCC-ASCO Implicit Bias Training Program to Enhance Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Cancer Clinical Trials.

Purpose: Cancer trial participants do not reflect the racial and ethnic diversity in the population of people with cancer in the United States. As a result of multiple system-, patient-, and provider-level factors, including implicit bias, cancer clinical trials are not consistently offered to all potentially eligible patients.

Materials And Methods: ASCO and ACCC evaluated the utility (pre- and post-test knowledge changes) and feasibility (completion rates, curriculum satisfaction metrics, survey questions, and interviews) of a customized online training program combined with facilitated peer-to-peer discussion designed to help research teams identify their own implicit biases and develop strategies to mitigate them.

Increasing Racial and Ethnic Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Cancer Treatment Trials: Evaluation of an ASCO-Association of Community Cancer Centers Site Self-Assessment.

Clinical trial participants do not reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of people with cancer. ASCO and the Association of Community Cancer Centers collaborated on a quality improvement study to enhance racial and ethnic equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in cancer clinical trials. The groups conducted a pilot study to examine the feasibility, utility, and face validity of a two-part clinical trial site self-assessment to enable diverse types of research sites in the United States to (1) review internal data to assess racial and ethnic disparities in screening and enrollment and (2) review their policies, programs, procedures to identify opportunities and strategies to improve EDI.

Implementing Pharmacogenetic Testing in Gastrointestinal Cancers (IMPACT-GI): Study Protocol for a Pragmatic Implementation Trial for Establishing and Screening to Guide Chemotherapy Dosing.

Background: Fluoropyrimidines (fluorouracil [5-FU], capecitabine) and irinotecan are commonly prescribed chemotherapy agents for gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies. Pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing for germline and variants associated with reduced enzyme activity holds the potential to identify patients at high risk for severe chemotherapy-induced toxicity. Slow adoption of PGx testing in routine clinical care is due to implementation barriers, including long test turnaround times, lack of integration in the electronic health record (EHR), and ambiguity in test cost coverage.

Digital Health Applications in Oncology: An Opportunity to Seize.

Digital health advances have transformed many clinical areas including psychiatric and cardiovascular care. However, digital health innovation is relatively nascent in cancer care, which represents the fastest growing area of health-care spending. Opportunities for digital health innovation in oncology include patient-facing technologies that improve patient experience, safety, and patient-clinician interactions; clinician-facing technologies that improve their ability to diagnose pathology and predict adverse events; and quality of care and research infrastructure to improve clinical workflows, documentation, decision support, and clinical trial monitoring.

Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Cancer Clinical Trials: An American Society of Clinical Oncology and Association of Community Cancer Centers Joint Research Statement.

A concerted commitment across research stakeholders is necessary to increase equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and address barriers to cancer clinical trial recruitment and participation. Racial and ethnic diversity among trial participants is key to understanding intrinsic and extrinsic factors that may affect patient response to cancer treatments. This ASCO and Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) Research Statement presents specific recommendations and strategies for the research community to improve EDI in cancer clinical trials.

Maintaining and Advancing Quality Cancer Care During a Global Pandemic.

The care of patients with cancer occurs in a fast-moving, high-pressure, and high-stakes ecosystem. Early in 2020, that complex ecosystem was further complicated by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. We address actions taken by care providers and systems during the initial phases of the pandemic, and how those actions preserved lifesaving and life-sustaining cancer care despite severely constrained resources.

Cancer Care at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Patients and Early Interventions to Mitigate Stresses on Care.

Purpose: A multidisciplinary panel of experts convened to review the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care in the United States as part of a symposium convened by the National Cancer Policy Forum in July 2021.

Methods: Representatives from the cancer care community, patients, infection prevention, and a government agency provided insight into key elements of the response to and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care in the United States in 2020.

Results: Multiple stakeholders worked quickly to adapt to provide seamless care to cancer patients with considerable success despite the profound uncertainties that faced us in the early days of the pandemic.

Preemptive pharmacogenetic testing to guide chemotherapy dosing in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies: a qualitative study of barriers to implementation.

Background: Pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing for germline variants in the DPYD and UGT1A1 genes can be used to guide fluoropyrimidine and irinotecan dosing, respectively. Despite the known association between PGx variants and chemotherapy toxicity, preemptive testing prior to chemotherapy initiation is rarely performed in routine practice.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study of oncology clinicians to identify barriers to using preemptive PGx testing to guide chemotherapy dosing in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies.

Telemedicine Utilization in the Ambulatory Palliative Care Setting: Are There Disparities?

Context: Given a shortage of specialty palliative care clinicians and geographic variation in availability, telemedicine has been proposed as one way to improve access to palliative care services for patients with cancer. However, the enduring digital divide raises questions about whether unequal access will exacerbate healthcare disparities.

Objectives: To examine factors associated with utilization of telemedicine as compared to in-person visits by patients with cancer in the ambulatory palliative care setting.

Implementation of a Palliative Oncology Tumor Board.

Context: The integration of palliative care into standard oncologic care has been shown to improve multiple outcomes in patients with advanced cancer. Ideal methods for integrating these disciplines is an ongoing area of discussion. One method of integration is a palliative oncology tumor board (POTB).

Avitene™ Microfibrillar Collagen Hemostat for Adjunctive Hemostasis in Surgical Procedures: A Systematic Literature Review.

Adequate hemostasis during surgical procedures is essential for successful patient outcomes and reduced healthcare resource utilization. Topical hemostatic agents can act as catalysts for the clotting cascade or as a scaffold to promote platelet activation or aggregation. Although an ever-increasing number of topical absorbable hemostatic agents are now available for perioperative use, health care providers are disadvantaged by the lack of comparative data on feasibility, clinical effectiveness, advantages, and limitations of each in specific surgical settings.

Implementation of the Institute of Medicine Treatment Plan in Oncology Practice.

Participation in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) value-based payment reform, the Oncology Care Model (OCM), requires that every beneficiary has a documented 13-point Institute of Medicine treatment plan (TP) when commencing antineoplastic therapy. The intent is to enhance shared decision-making between the patient and care team by providing transparent treatment recommendations and engaging patients and caregivers in meaningful discussion. There is limited discussion in the literature about how to adapt the CMS recommendations to diverse practice settings while maintaining fidelity to the intent of the TP.

DPYD and UGT1A1 Pharmacogenetic Testing in Patients with Gastrointestinal Malignancies: An Overview of the Evidence and Considerations for Clinical Implementation.

Gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies are among the most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide. Despite the introduction of targeted and immunotherapy agents in the treatment landscape, cytotoxic agents, such as fluoropyrimidines and irinotecan, remain as the cornerstone of chemotherapy for many of these tumors. Pharmacogenetics (PGx) is a rapidly evolving field that accounts for interpatient variability in drug metabolism to predict therapeutic response and toxicity.

Anticancer Therapy at the End of Life: Lessons From a Community Cancer Institute.

Introduction: Studies have shown aggressive cancer care at the end of life is associated with decreased quality of life, decreased median survival, and increased cost of care. This study describes the patients most likely to receive systemic anticancer therapy at the end of life in a community cancer institute.

Materials And Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 201 patients who received systemic anticancer therapy in our institution and died between July 2016 and April 2017.