Symposium to offer ‘dynamic’ program focused on cancer survivors’ unique needs
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
An estimated 18.1 million cancer survivors live in the United States, according to American Cancer Society.
That number — increasing steadily due to earlier detection and treatment advances — is expected to exceed 22 million by 2030.
“This really drives home the need to move the field of cancer survivorship forward,” Lidia Schapira, MD, FASCO, a medical oncologist at Stanford Health who focuses on breast cancer and cancer survivorship, told Healio. “We need to think about how to expand capacity to care for all survivors, provide high-level education for those involved with that care, foster collaboration and ensure we are focused on advancing the science.”
Those are the core goals of the second annual Cancer Center Survivorship Research Forum: Implementing Equitable Cancer Survivorship Care.
The event will be held Sept. 11-12 in Stanford, California. Healio is an official media partner of the forum, which will offer virtual attendance.
The program will focus on how to deliver optimal survivorship care, as well as strategies to further survivorship research.
“This conference devoted to cancer survivorship will take a critical ‘deep dive’ into the latest research on the issues cancer survivors and their caregivers face, and the care delivery innovation happening across the country and globally to meet the needs of this unique population,” faculty member Catherine M. Alfano, PhD, vice president of cancer care management and research at Northwell Health Cancer Institute and associate director of Institute of Health System Science at Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, told Healio.
Laying the foundation
Three organizations — ASCO, American College of Physicians and American Academy of Family Physicians — conducted an annual cancer survivorship conference for several years, focusing on care strategies and collaboration between oncology and primary care specialists.
When organizers sunset that meeting after 2019, leaders in the field suggested cancer centers should organize a meeting to fill the gap.
That idea came to fruition with the inaugural Cancer Center Survivorship Research Forum, which University of Minnesota hosted in a virtual format in 2021.
Stanford will host this year’s hybrid symposium, and plans are in place for forums hosted by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2025 and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2027.
The inaugural symposium laid a foundation for success on which organizers of this year’s meeting hope to build, Schapira said.
“It definitely increased awareness about the growing field — and the science — of cancer survivorship,” she said. “We did a very good job of crystalizing some of the common questions, problems and pain points for a field that doesn’t have a single society, but is rather unique in that people from so many different disciplines are working together.”
‘A dynamic program’
The symposium’s planning committee — which includes representatives from medical oncology, pediatric oncology, mental health, supportive care and cancer survivors — have developed “a dynamic program,” Schapira said.
“We have cutting-edge research, round tables and breakouts that specifically address challenges that practitioners face every day,” Schapira said. “Sessions will offer incredibly valuable information about topics such as cognition, sexual health and fertility, fear of recurrence, and late effects of cancer therapies — all of the subjects for which survivors and clinicians are seeking practical tips.”
The program on day 1 will include sessions that explore standardization of survivorship care and implementation in diverse settings, engaging primary care in survivorship, and the clinical components of survivorship care, including breakout sessions on cognitive dysfunction, oncofertility and cancer rehabilitation. Another session will explore implementation of precision risk-stratified survivorship care. The day will conclude with oral abstracts and a poster session.
Day 2 will begin with a patient perspective session and an update on childhood/adolescent and young adult survivorship. Other sessions will address assessing genetic risk, sexual health/intimacy, networking in cancer survivorship research, and translating innovation into clinical practice.
“The conference is focused on implementing equitable cancer survivorship care, which is one of the biggest and most important challenges of our time,” Alfano said. “ We must innovate our care to meet the needs of all survivors and their caregivers, but how to do this is the big question. One-size-fits-all approaches won’t work, and we need this critical forum of ideas on how to thoughtfully create personalized care.”
Practical solutions
Schapira said she is particularly excited about a session titled “Priorities for survivorship research: global solutions to common challenges.” The discussion will provide an international perspective, as panelists will represent the United States, Australia and Mexico.
“We picked people who are leaders in either international professional organizations or who work in fields that may appear dissimilar but have this overlapping interest in defining a global research agenda and helping us think about how we can learn from each other,” she said. “Perhaps individuals or teams in other countries have already thought of solutions that are ‘local’ that could be exportable and testable in other settings.”
Breakout sessions on career development will be offered both days, as well.
The target audience includes all providers involved with cancer care — including physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants — as well as primary care providers and researchers whose work focuses on cancer survivorship. Junior faculty are encouraged to attend.
“We really want to think about practical solutions that improve access to excellent survivorship care,” Schapira said. “We want to push forward a global agenda for research and strive to identify solutions to common challenges, keeping in mind some of those solutions already may exist. And as is reflected by the meeting title, we must make a commitment that those solutions will be equitable, sustainable and actionable.”
The conference will enable established survivorship researchers and clinicians and trainees from various disciplines to learn about the latest advances in science and clinical care for cancer survivors, Alfano said.
“[It] provides a valuable forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices to stimulate new ideas and approaches to survivorship care,” she told Healio.
For more information:
For more information about the symposium or to view the agenda, go to stanford.cloud-cme.com/course/courseoverview?P=5&EID=4284.
Collapse
Healio Interviews
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts