Breast Cancer Program Launches Tumor Board Webcast Video Series

The value of physician teamwork is evident in Cleveland Clinic’s newly launched Tumor Board CME webcast video series, which demonstrates the organization’s multidisciplinary approach to patient care.

The Tumor Board series allows viewers to review a complex case and listen in on how the treatment team works together to develop and refine therapeutic strategy. Medical oncologist Jame Abraham, MD, Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Breast Oncology Program and Co-Director of the Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Program, leads the series.

“We’re excited to launch this series to showcase teamwork,” Dr. Abraham says. “For each of these webcasts, we’ll bring together doctors working together for the benefit of a patient with a complex diagnosis.”

The breast cancer webcast, now live, considers the case of a patient with HER2-positive early-stage/locally advanced disease. The treatment team, consisting of Cleveland Clinic medical, surgical and radiation oncologists, reviews options grounded in best practices and current guidelines.

Data from leading-edge clinical trials is also part of the information considered in this patient’s case. The faculty presents the case through radiologic imaging and pathologic findings (particularly HER2 testing), and reviews options for neoadjuvant therapy with HER2-targeted agents.

The Tumor Board webcast video series will feature cases involving Cleveland Clinic experts from a range of specialties and interests in oncology and hematology, as warranted by the specific case to be reviewed. “In addition to the experts from Cleveland Clinic, we will include other national and international experts to the panel,” Dr. Abraham says.

This team approach to treating oncology patients dovetails with Cleveland Clinic’s group practice model. Offered through the Taussig Cancer Institute in cooperation with the MyCME portal on Cleveland Clinic’s website, this new webcast video series puts informative cancer care case studies into an accessible, on-demand format.

Dr. Abraham says future editions will include cases involving lung cancer, melanoma, lymphoma, and neurological and gastrointestinal cancers. In addition to reviewing common cancer types, the series will address emerging research that points in new directions in oncology.

“Our goal,” he says, “is to provide six to eight of these educational opportunities each year.”

Any provider who touches the field of oncology may benefit from the series, Dr. Abraham says. “Not only will multidisciplinary physicians in oncology find value, but residents, fellows and mid-level providers can learn from the series. Radiologists and pathologists will benefit, too. And, since we’re a webcast, we reach an international audience.”

The series is sponsored by Cleveland Clinic in cooperation with Harborside Press, publishers of ASCO Post, JNCCN and JADPRO – Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology.

This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.