The Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) Cancer Program Fundamentals offer peer-developed, foundational information on the basic areas encompassed in the development of a cancer program.
This section is not comprehensive, exhaustive resource; however, it provides a broad, high-level overview of the services included within a cancer program with links to standards, accrediting organizations, and additional resources.
Cancer care and oncology services are continually evolving. The materials and resources found here provide a basic framework that can be useful to those new to oncology as well as to seasoned cancer program professionals who may be exploring a new area within the cancer service line or identifying options for expanding established services.
The information found here has been developed with the direction, input, and guidance of the ACCC Cancer Program Fundamentals Committee and many leading oncology experts, who have generously given their time and expertise to make the Cancer Program Fundamentals as useful and relevant as possible.
Each of topic includes a brief case study that illustrate the real-world experiences of ACCC-member cancer programs and practices in quality care delivery.
As the healthcare system and oncology ecosystem evolve, the ACCC Cancer Program Fundamentals Committee will continue to work with members and national experts to update and expand the information included within this web section.
Meeting Changing Needs
The ACCC Cancer Program Fundamentals succeeds the ACCC Cancer Program Guidelines, which were first published in 1988, and revised in 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, (in print) and in 2012 (online and in PDF format). The ACCC Cancer Program Guidelines were first developed to meet the needs of cancer care delivery as cancer programs were being established and developed in communities across the country. The guidelines were never an accrediting or credentialing mechanism and were not a list of standards, such as the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) Cancer Program Standards. Rather, the ACCC publication was created to outline "optimal" attributes of a cancer program.
To avoid redundancy with the credentialing, accreditation, and quality standards that have emerged over recent years, in 2013, through a membership survey and focus group discussion, ACCC re-envisioned this resource as the Cancer Program Fundamentals web section, a streamlined, dynamic, easy-to-update tool for our membership.
View the archived ACCC Cancer Program Guidelines (2012 edition).
This section offers a basic overview of services encompassed within cancer programs: imaging services, medical oncology services, surgical oncology, radiation oncology services, and oncology nursing services. Find information on accreditation and certification entities and links to resources under each of these sections.
Cancer treatment has become increasing complex, with an ever-expanding armamentarium of anti-cancer agents, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies, oncology pharmacy services continue to grow and evolve. Find practical information on the basic components of oncology pharmacy services, resources, case studies, and information on accrediting entities.
According to recent estimates, more than 15 million cancer survivors are living in the U.S. today. This number is expected to grow to 20 million by the year 2026. This section provides information on post-treatment survivorship services as a cancer program component.
From Community Needs Assessments to outreach for cancer prevention and screening to community-specific targeted education and more, discover examples of how cancer program components support community and population health.
The 2008 Institute of Medicine report, Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs, was a call to action to address the psychological and social (psychosocial) problems associated with the disease. Failure to provide whole-patient cancer care, the report found, "can compromise the effectiveness of health care and thereby adversely affect the health of cancer patients."