ACCC offers comprehensive cancer care resources that elevate the delivery of multidisciplinary treatment throughout all stages of the cancer care journey. Cancer care services that address the full spectrum of a patient’s needs—physical, nutritional, emotional, psychosocial, spiritual, and financial—have been found to greatly improve survivor’s quality of life and outcomes.
Empowering and providing support to family and caregivers can help relieve the stress and anxiety of a cancer diagnosis, which improves the physical and mental health of both patients and caregivers. Patient navigators can positively impact a patient’s overall treatment experience by making it more efficient, coordinated, and individually focused. And whether patients are recently diagnosed or have been undergoing cancer treatment for some time, those who create a comprehensive cancer care plan, are educated about their healthcare needs, and are involved in treatment decision-making have better outcomes.
Ongoing pressures on healthcare delivery systems in the US, such as high volumes of distressed patients and limited resources, puts additional strain on cancer centers who commonly struggle to provide adequate access to mental health services. The Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) offers a sustainable solution to increase access to effective psychosocial care and receive reimbursement for those services provided to Medicare patients.
Although an important aspect of cancer care, a patient’s psychosocial health needs are often left unmet. ACCC is seeking to help establish guidelines and accreditation standards for distress screening programs so they can become more universally integrated into patient treatment plans.
From mental health concerns to fertility preservation, adolescents and young adults with cancer require a specialized approach to treatment and survivorship care. In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, ACCC highlights a pivotal program from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and resources that meet the critical needs of these patients.
The newest Oncology Issues is here, opening the year with a spotlight on the six 2025 ACCC Innovators: Fox Chase Cancer Center, Lifepoint Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, WellSpan Cancer Institute, Highlands Oncology, and Shaw Cancer Center.
To broaden access to the specialized support and navigation that patients with primary brain tumors need, the Brain Tumor Network partnered with the American Cancer Society.
In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Nicholas Burwick, MD, hematologist in the Puget Sound VA Health Care System, about how his VA site tackled these challenges and made BsAbs available to its patient population through a collaborative hub-and-spoke model.
In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Millie Das, MD, chief of oncology at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, about the collaborations and institutional support that allowed them to launch lung cancer clinical trials and the role industry has played.
In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Ramy Sedhom, MD, section chief of medical oncology at Penn Medicine Princeton Health, Princeton Cancer Center about his program’s receipt of a 2025 ACCC Innovator Award. His team’s innovation, Implementing a Structured, Scalable Geriatric Oncology Program, paves the way for other programs to effectively integrate the use of geriatric assessments into routine clinical workflows, thus bridging a critical gap for older adults with cancer.
Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) face poorer cancer outcomes and experiences compared with younger and older patients, and they historically have been lost between pediatric and adult models of oncology care. The Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) is committed to providing up-to-date guidance on treating AYA patients with cancer to improve their outcomes. In this episode of CANCER BUZZ, a team from the University of North Carolina (UNC) AYA Oncology Program shares how it’s meeting the unique needs of this patient population by providing developmentally appropriate cancer care through a multidisciplinary approach, including clinical trial access and interactive infusion space; sharing resources where AYAs need additional support; and developing education about fertility and the short- and long-term impacts of cancer.
In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Julie Ryan Wolf, PhD, MPH and C.J.G. (Corina) van den Hurk, PhD, the chair and vice chair of the Oncodermatology Study Group at the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) about common oncodermatological toxicities including radiation dermatitis, hair loss, and nail changes unique to EGFR-inhibitors. Also discussed are strategies to increase provider collaboration to intervene at an early stage to improve quality of life for patients receiving cancer treatment.
In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Steven Gilmore, PharmD, BCOP, Senior Manager of Clinical Content in Pharmacy and Clinical Programs with McKesson Specialty Health, and Christopher Benton, MD, hematologist and medical oncologist at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, to review key considerations and emerging trends for the treatment of anemia in the low-risk MDS population.
In this episode, CANCER BUZZ TV speaks with Tom Lycan, DO, MHS, assistant professor of Hematology & Oncology at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, about a practical tool that can provide a care plan roadmap for providers and patients to mitigate precision medicine disparities.
A focused prehabilitation (prehab) program couples physical therapy with holistic care that includes nutritional support, stress reduction strategies, and nurse navigator intervention. Integrating prehabilitation can not only improve patient outcomes post-surgery, it can also decrease hospital length of stay.
Presented at the 2021 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, September 24 - 25, 2021.
Presented at the 2020 ASCO Quality Care Symposium
Presented at 2019 Multinational Association of Supportive Cancer Care (MASCC) and International Society of Oral Oncology (ISOO) Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
Presented at GSA 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston, MA.
