Transforming Complex to Clear: New Precision Medicine Tools

The statement, “Precision medicine is revolutionizing patient care,” has at this point perhaps become a bit repetitive. But it’s truer each year. The role of biomarkers and molecular profiling in cancer diagnosis and treatment continues to expand. For five of the most common types of cancer (lung, prostate, colorectal, breast, and skin), there are more than 75 biomarkers used in clinical practice. The sheer number of treatment options across tumor types and the complexity of offering precision medicine services make it difficult for providers to introduce biomarker testing into their practices. 
 

But biomarker testing can be a game-changer for patients. In oncology, a biomarker can indicate cancer type, how a cancer will progress if left untreated, which specific treatment may be most effective for a given cancer, and how well treatment is working over time. Offering this range of services and the complexity of creating a program for implementing them can be extensive, depending on tumor type and providers' clinical expertise. 

To help community cancer programs and practices that offer, or want to offer, biomarker testing, ACCC has launched Transforming Complex to Clear, a precision medicine campaign that has developed a range of tools and resources to help bring clarity to complex patient care decisions. Designed for multidisciplinary cancer teams, these resources can enable clinicians to make educated and confident decisions that can positively influence patient outcomes. 

Among these resources is a guide to the lexicon of biomarker testing, an easily searchable, comprehensive guide to biomarker terminology that can help empower the multidisciplinary cancer care team to better serve their patients. “ACCC is focused on reducing barriers to biomarker testing implementation and streamlining verbiage and defining terminology,” explains Michelle Shiller, DO, AP/CP, MGP, chair of the 2020 BiomarkerLive advisory committee. “So all care team members have a shared understanding of precision medicine fundamentals.” 

Additional tools and resources available in ACCC’s Precision Medicine Library provide the cancer care team with comprehensive, trusted, and tangible resources that can inform their patient care decisions and help improve outcomes. From toolkits to webinars, the library features resources developed and curated by cancer care experts throughout the world. These resources offer information from pharmacists to oncologists on all aspects of precision medicine, giving providers essential knowledge to apply to patient care. Some of these resources include: 

• Toolkit: Biomarker Testing in Practice: Process Improvement Toolkit. This practical,resource-driven toolkit focuses on the four key elements needed when developing a precision medicine program (provider education, patient education, infrastructure, staffing & services).
• Resource Library: Explore this biomarker resource bank of available materials relevant to cancer biomarkers and biomarker testing. You can filter by cancer type, area of application, and/or primary audience.
• CME/CMLE on-demand summit: Optimizing Advanced NSCLC Biomarker Testing, Treatment, and Management Virtual Summit. This enduring material was recorded from a virtual summit to help members of the cancer care team gain deeper scientific knowledge, skills, and competence in biomarker testing practices, treatment selection, and management of adverse events in patients with advanced NSCLC. Participants can receive up to 4.5 hours of CME/CMLE credit.
• Tool: Biomarker Testing Implementation Roadmap for Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is an innovative learning tool that can help multidisciplinary cancer care teams obtain the knowledge they need to implement, expand, and sustain biomarker testing for patients with advanced NSCLC.
• On-demand webinar: Pathology 101. Learn more about the role of laboratory medicine professionals and pathologists, including a review of testing techniques and applications as well as lab-specific regulations and their impact on biomarker testing.
• Upcoming webinars: A Roadmap for MRD Testing in B-cell ALL, Parts I, 2, and 3. Join ACCC Nov. 18, Dec. 2, and Dec. 9 for a three-part webinar series on how to lay the groundwork, prepare your care team, and implement and evaluate an MRD testing program. 
• LinkedIn on-demand webinar: Biomarkers: A Roadmap for Personalized Lung Cancer Care. Expert panelists representing the multidisciplinary cancer care team discuss effective practices and offered tips to address current barriers to biomarker testing in the community setting. 

To access even more archived and new education from ACCC on the topic of precision medicine, explore our website. ACCC’s ongoing precision medicine campaign, Transforming Complex to Clear, will continue by adding additional resources that our members are asking for. Visit us often!