CANCER BUZZ Association of Community Cancer Centers

Members of the multidisciplinary cancer care team—and cancer program leadership—recognize the importance of taking care of one’s own mental health to be able to provide the best possible care to patients. Yet, many care team members are hesitant to share sensitive information and/or ask for support. Breaking down the social stigma that is often still associated with seeking mental health services is key to making cancer care clinicians and staff feel a “sense of safety” and that they will not be penalized for accessing mental health services. Normalizing the conversation around mental health is critical to developing this sense of safety and culture of caring.
 
Guests:
Christine Cha, MD
Radiation Oncologist
System Medical Director Cancer Service Line
PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, St. Joseph Cancer Center
 
Tricia Wooden, MD
System Medical Director, Provider and Caregiver Wellness
PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, St. Joseph Cancer Center
 
“First of all, we have to acknowledge that oncologists are human—just like their patients...Everyone benefits from good mental health. And just like physical health, you have to take care of your mental health…Speaking as someone who has experienced depression and burnout out in an earlier part of my career, it is really important to understand that you are not alone and that there are resources that are aimed to help you.”
 
“Helping clinicians understand where their power is and helping them to feel better has wide-reaching implications on the care of our patients and the way they [clinicians] show up and function in our care teams…It is really difficult, as a non-clinician, to work for a clinician who is experiencing mental health issues and burnout. To some degree, we need to address the well-being of our clinicians first as we start to help to improve the whole health of the care team.”
 
Read more in ACCC’s Call to Action: Delivery of Psychosocial Care in Oncology Summit. Thank you to BeiGene, USA  for supporting this important work.
 
Resources:
A Psychological First Aid Program in the COVID-19 Era
Community-Based Psychological First Aid for Oncology Professionals
Improving the Culture of Your Cancer Center, One Idea at a Time
Can You Hear Me Now?
Caring for the Caregiver
Removing the Blame from Burnout

Remote patient monitoring is a type of telehealth that allows patients to share data about their health with their care team in between clinic visits, including symptoms and vitals. Symptom tracking and monitoring technologies allow better management of treatment side effects, in turn allowing longer administration of treatments and improved clinical outcomes. While advantages to remote patient monitoring are well-known and documented in the literature, translation into clinical practice must account for patient preferences, equity considerations, financial sustainability, and patient/provider education needs. 
In 2022, ACCC conducted a survey to measure patient, caregiver, and provider perceptions and adoption of messaging tools, electronic questionnaires, and connected devices used to track and monitor symptoms during cancer treatment. This podcast shares key survey findings.
Guest:
David Penberthy, MD, MBA
Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology
Penn State Health, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Immediate Past President
Association of Community Cancer Centers
“Through the pandemic, healthcare has been contending with workforce shortages, and so everybody is concerned about how we do more with less. Using digital tools can actually help facilitate patient engagement with the healthcare team—hopefully keeping people out of the hospital and intervening earlier so we can achieve more of what we’re trying to achieve of maintaining health as opposed to just reacting to illness.”
 Read more here.

Resources:
Remote Patient Monitoring: The New Frontier in Telemedicine Opportunities
Changing the Tune for CAR T-Cell Therapy: A Music City Experience in Remote Patient Monitoring
Remote Patient Monitoring and Health Equity
Telehealth Success Stories: Remote Symptom Monitoring Using Patient Reported Outcomes
Chemotherapy Care Companion: An Oncology Remote Patient Monitoring Program
Remote Home Monitoring of Patients with Cancer During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This project is supported by AstraZeneca.
 

As myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) carry a heavy symptom burden which can significantly impact a patient’s quality of life, hear how multidisciplinary care and psycho-social support can help alleviate this burden for patients. In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Sarah Everette, LCSW and oncology social worker at Baptist Health Louisville in Kentucky about how these types of support and coordination can optimize care for patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. 
“If we get patients into physical therapy or occupational therapy early in their treatment, it helps with outcomes; it helps them [patients] not decondition so easily, especially for elderly populations. However, not only addressing their physical symptoms, but also their mental and emotional health [is important] too, because we know that we are not just caring for one aspect of the person but the whole person.” -Sarah Everette, LCSW 
Sarah Everette, LCSW
Oncology Social Worker
Baptist Health Louisville
Louisville, KY
Resources:
Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (cancersupportcommunity.org)
The Psychosocial and Financial Aspects of Treating Myelofibrosis (accc.org) 
National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines: Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

The goal of treatment for most patients with myelofibrosis is to relieve symptoms. A provider will use a formula to assign a risk category (indicating aggressiveness) for the disease. Myelofibrosis categorized as low risk may not require treatment. Instead, a provider would monitor a patient’s health through regular checkup to watch for signs of disease progression. For those patients with intermediate- or high-risk, treatment most often focuses on managing symptoms. CANCER BUZZ spoke to Aaron Gerds, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine in Hematology & Medical Oncology, Deputy Director for Clinical Research at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and Medical Director at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Clinical Research Office in Cleveland, OH. Hear Dr. Gerds discuss standard of care treatment options and new therapies for treating patients with myelofibrosis.
“I think the biggest thing when taking care of patients with myelofibrosis is to know what is driving the disease in the patient in front of you. What are the mutations and chromosomes driving disease as well as symptoms and presentation of disease.”
“There is a big focus on quality of life for myelofibrosis, but none of these things that patients feel are solely from disease…”
Aaron Gerds, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine in Hematology & Medical Oncology
Deputy Director for Clinical Research
Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute
Medical Director, Clinical Research Office
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Cleveland, OH
Resources:
·       Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
·       MPN Research Foundation 
 
This project is supported by AbbVie. 

Each year, ACCC is active at the state and federal level, advocating on behalf of its members to ensure that the rules and regulations in place do not in any way impede the delivery of high-quality cancer care. In 2023, ACCC members identified four core areas of focus among a larger set of issues and concerns that the organization will support: 1) Protect Adequate and Stable Reimbursement for Oncology Providers; 2) Reduce Delays in Care Due to Utilization Management; 3) Preserve Provider and Patient Choice in Cancer Treatment; and 4) Improve Access to and Coverage of Supportive Oncology Services.
Guest:
Barbara Schmidtman, PhD
Vice President of Operations, Corewell Health West
Chair, Governmental Affairs Committee, Association of Community Cancer Centers
“Continued access to telehealth coverage is an important topic that we need to continue to bring up over the next several years...as we look at the shortage of medical oncologists and other specially-trained providers and…the rural communities that do not always have access to highly-specialized or sub-specialized clinicians, the use of telehealth is incredibly impactful for providing care to those rural communities.”
Read more in “ACCC Announces its 2023 Advocacy Agenda” in ACCCBuzz.
Resources:
  Advocacy in Action: Putting Guardrails Around Step Therapy
Compliance: Jumping Through the Hoops of Prior Authorizations and Denials to Deliver Comprehensive Cancer Care
How to Prepare for the Prior Authorization Blizzard
Study Highlights Need for Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization Reform
Pharmacy Benefit Managers: How Advocacy Led to Action [PODCAST] Ep 85
State by State: Advocacy Advances PBM Reform, Part 1
State by State: Advocacy Advances PBM Reform, Part 2
 

The average survival rate for patients with myelofibrosis is six years. But this varies based on potential treatments. There are no drugs that can modify the outcome for myelofibrosis, and the only treatment that leads to cure is an allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). However, because of the high rates of morbidity and mortality, this treatment must be carefully considered based on the patient. CANCER BUZZ spoke to Gabriela S. Hobbs. MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Clinical Director of Leukemia, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Listen as Dr. Hobbs discusses symptom scoring, risk stratification, and effective practices in building a strong myelofibrosis program.
“…If a patient is higher risk, they should be referred to transplant; also patients who are high risk are more likely to have low blood counts, low platelets, and low red blood cells that may also influence how these patients are treated.” – Gabriela S. Hobbs. MD
 This project is supported by AbbVie and GSK.  
Gabriela S. Hobbs. MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Clinical Director of Leukemia
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA
Resources: 
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
MPN Research Foundation