What is a tumor board?
A tumor board is a group of doctors and other health care providers with different specialties that meets regularly at the hospital to discuss cancer cases and share knowledge.
What is the monthly oncology tumor board?
Monthly Oncology Tumor Boards. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) are a set of step-by step evidence-based, consensus-driven recommendations to ensure that patients receive preventive, diagnostic, treatment, and supportive services that are most likely to lead to optimal outcomes.
What kind of doctors are involved in a tumor board meeting?
Tumor board meetings can include doctors such as pathologists, surgeons, and medical and radiation oncologists. Depending on the cases being discussed, additional doctors, such as gynecologists, plastic surgeons, or urologists, may also participate. A diverse range of other health care providers,…
What’s new in multidisciplinary tumor boarding?
Increasingly, traditional tumor boards are giving way to prospective multidisciplinary conferences that allow ongoing evaluation of a patient and patient participation in the discussion, improving shared decision making.
What is a tumor board meeting?
Listen to pronunciation. (TOO-mer bord reh-VYOO) A treatment planning approach in which a number of doctors who are experts in different specialties (disciplines) review and discuss the medical condition and treatment options of a patient.
Are tumor boards a waste of time?
Multidisciplinary management improves the care of cancer patients, and tumor boards are definitely not a waste of time. Moreover, they are a necessity, not a luxury, in areas with limited resources.
What does a tumor review board do?
A tumor board is a group of doctors and other health care providers with different specialties that meets regularly at the hospital to discuss cancer cases and share knowledge. The board’s goal is to determine the best possible cancer treatment and care plan for an individual patient.
What is a family Tumor Conference?
The family conference (FC) is a forum for communication with both the patient and family to discuss essential information about medical, educational, and psychosocial needs. It ensures appropriate decision-making, which is integral to comprehensive cancer care.
What is a survivorship care plan?
A detailed plan given to a patient after treatment ends, that contains a summary of the patient’s treatment, along with recommendations for follow-up care. In cancer, the plan is based on the type of cancer and the treatment the patient received.
When does an oncologist get involved?
Takeaway. You will likely be referred to an oncologist if your doctor suspects that you have the disease. Your primary care physician may carry out tests to determine if you might have cancer. If there are any signs of cancer, your doctor may recommend visiting an oncologist as soon as possible.
What is a virtual tumor board?
The Virtual Tumor Board (VTB) is comprised of a group of expert surgeons, radiation oncologists, pathologists, and medical oncologists who gather to discuss treatment options for individual cancer patients and provide unique, personalized treatment plans close to home.
What is it called when doctors meet to discuss patients?
A doctor’s visit, also known as a physician office visit or a consultation, or a ward round in an inpatient care context, is a meeting between a patient with a physician to get health advice or treatment plan for a symptom or condition, most often at a professional health facility such as a doctor’s office, clinic or …
What is a tumor block?
When a patient has a biopsy or surgery, the surgeon often will remove diseased tissue for examination by the hospital’s pathology department. The tissue is referred to as a “tissue block.” The pathologist will slice the tissue block into very thin layers that are placed on a glass slide and examined under a microscope.
What is a Tumour?
An abnormal mass of tissue that forms when cells grow and divide more than they should or do not die when they should. Tumors may be benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer). Benign tumors may grow large but do not spread into, or invade, nearby tissues or other parts of the body.
What does an oncologist?
A clinical oncologist is a doctor who uses chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a range of other treatments to care for patients with cancer.
What is a tumor board?
A: A tumor board is a meeting made up of specialized doctors and other health care providers who regularly gather to discuss cancer cases that are unusual and/or challenging . The goal is to decide on the best possible treatment plan for a patient as a group. Your case might be discussed if you have a less common type of cancer …
Why are tumor boards important?
That’s why tumor boards are so crucial. These meetings provide a huge benefit to patients, though it’s a process patients don’t usually know much about.
Does Fox Chase have a tumor board?
But large NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers like Fox Chase have multiple tumor boards, each focusing on a different type of cancer.
What is a tumor board?
A tumor board is essentially a “meeting of the minds” —a way for oncologists, scientists, and domain experts to convene and review your case in its entirety. This includes all aspects of your history as related to your cancer, including pathology reports, clinic notes, surgical notes, molecular testing, current and previous treatments, and imaging.
What is the end goal of a tumor board?
The end goal of the tumor board is to come to a consensus on what the best next plan of action is for you. Upon completion of a tumor board and discussion of your case, the lead scientist or physician typically will organize the options into a report, detailing the specific options and how to go about accessing them.
What are the treatments for cancer?
These options can include treatments approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating your cancer type, treatments approved for other cancer types that may target a specific molecular alteration or pathway, investigational therapies not yet approved, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
Can a tumor board be held?
Although tumor boards can be held to discuss any type of cancer case, they are usually reserved for patients who have exhausted the standard of care and are seeking new treatment options, as well as those with rare tumor types for which there may not be a standard of care. The hope with both of these types of cases is that …
What is tumor board?
Tumor boards have been a part of cancer care for decades and are standard at most hospitals, though many doctors agree that there’s still lots of room for improvement. These boards are a multidisciplinary team effort to review and discuss an individual patient’s current condition and treatment options in-depth.
What happens after a tumor board meeting?
After a tumor board meeting, their primary physician will generally relay the new information and possible treatment options to the patient to then make a decision. A big benefit from these boards is the potential for patients to receive more personalized treatment options and see a better chance of survival.
Why do hospitals have tumor boards?
Most hospitals and clinics have at least one cancer tumor board that allows specialists in different areas to collaborate on these more unique cases and discuss possible treatment plans . These tumor boards not only stand to benefit the patients but can also have an overall positive effect for the doctors attending.
What do specialists in different areas like surgical oncology or radiation oncology know?
Specialists in different areas, like surgical oncology or radiation oncology, may know of emerging treatments or research studies the patient could benefit from that their primary doctor may not be aware of. These meetings can lead to a patient having more, better treatment options.
How often do tumor boards meet?
Boards may meet on a regular basis, even as often as weekly meetings, to personally review medical records and discuss patients at theirs or other local clinics. Other medical centers may approach tumor boards on an as-needed basis and will gather to discuss more complex cases when they arise.
What is a medical history meeting?
In general, these meetings consist of doctors explaining the medical history and circumstances of their patient’s condition. This includes all radiological, surgical and pathological findings, as well as any social and medical issues that may impact their treatment.
Does tumor board participation improve survival?
Though the researchers explained the study can’t be understood as conclusively showing tumor board participation directly results in better survival , the research at the very least suggests more doctors working together on an individual case can often improve a patient’s odds.
What is the goal of the interprofessional oncology care team?
The goal of this project is to ensure that members of the interprofessional oncology care team, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other relevant health care professionals, have the knowledge and skills necessary to:
What is the NCCN?
The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines ®) are composed of recommendations based on the best evidence available at the time they are derived. Because new data are published continuously, the NCCN Guidelines ® also are continuously updated and revised to reflect evolving data. The goal of the NCCN Guidelines is to help oncologists and other oncology health care professionals make the major clinical decisions encountered in managing their patients by providing ready access to the highest quality information available based on the evaluation of expert clinicians from NCCN Member Institutions.
