Lung Cancer

ACCC conducted patient and provider surveys to determine how to raise awareness about best practices in treating patients with small cell lung cancer. The surveys were used to identify and better understand the gaps and potential disconnects in the patient/provider relationship.

Through the development and facilitation of both patient and provider surveys, ACCC will highlight the patient experience, dispel myths and misconceptions, breakdown guideline-discordant treatment plans, and identify and uncover barriers, gaps, and challenges to obtaining optimal care.

This project will address inequities surrounding care for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer by evaluating the utilization biomarker testing and treatment of patients and identifying ideal care recommendations for this population amid rapidly advancing clinical data.

More than 50 percent of programs stated that their processes and procedures for established and emerging biomarker testing needed improvement. Rural cancer programs indicated that they face unique barriers to biomarker testing.

ACCC released the findings of a multi-year, national quality care initiative for patients with stage III and stage IV NSCLC. Six ACCC member programs focused on areas most relevant to their practice setting and found ways to incorporate the latest evidence and clinical practice guidelines.

ACCC—in partnership with the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP)—is committed to ensuring you have the resources, tools, and education you need to optimize the diagnosis, testing, and management of patients with advanced NSCLC, particularly those with ALK mutations.

Through this educational program, ACCC will identify and disseminate examples of effective practices and tools for developing, implementing, and assessing operational pathways for molecular testing for eligible patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

For patients with lung cancer, molecularly targeted therapies based on expression of specific biomarkers may be potential treatment options. Only through biomarker testing can clinicians discover whether lung cancers have targetable biomarkers.

ACCC is pleased to make available the Model for Improving Care Coordination, which is designed for programs and practices of all sizes and resource levels. In addition to a comprehensive PDF report, the Model has been transformed into a free, interactive online tool to evaluate the current state of care coordination for lung cancer patients and identify focus areas for improvement and actionable next steps.

This initiative will seek to increase lung cancer screening rates by identifying and addressing informational, literacy, and cultural barriers that inhibit rural Appalachian residents from seeking preventative cancer care.