CELCC 2014 Abstract
P5. Multidisciplinary thoracic tumor board conferences—review of the literature and institutional experience
Thomas Klikovits1, Robert Pirker2, Sabine Zöchbauer2, Karin Dieckmann3, Silvana Geleff4, Helmut Prosch5, Walter Klepetko1, Mir Alireza Hoda1
1Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Vienna, Austria; 2Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine I, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Med, Vienna, Austria; 3Department of Radiation Oncology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 4Department of Pathology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 5Department of Radiology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Background: Due to the complexity of diagnostics, staging and therapy of cancer an interdisciplinary connection between different oncological disciplines is essential. Multidisciplinary tumor boards (MTBs) have been introduced more than a decade ago in order to facilitate interdisciplinary patient discussion and management. However, the efficacy of this approach is rather theoretical and only little evidence is given by the current literature whether patients with thoracic malignancies may benefit from MTBs.
Methods: In 2007, a weekly multidisciplinary thoracic tumor board conference has been established at our institution. We aimed to review the current literature on the value of thoracic MTBs and to discuss our own experience with the institutional thoracic MTB.
Results: Between May 2013 and July 2014, 381 patients have been discussed in 46 MTB conferences. The mean number of patients per month and per MTB was 26 and 9, respectively. Few studies have shown that adherence to treatment guidelines and accuracy of staging can be increased if patients are presented to thoracic MTBs. Furthermore, time from diagnosis to treatment can be decreased by discussing patients in a multidisciplinary setting.
Conclusions: We conclude that thoracic tumor board conferences may facilitate diagnosis, staging and treatment of patients with thoracic malignancies by interdisciplinary discussion. Adherence to treatment guidelines can be increased which may lead to a potential survival benefit of these patients.
Keywords: Tumor board; diagnosis; treatment
doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2218-6751.2014.AB017
Cite this article as: Klikovits T, Pirker R, Zöchbauer S, Dieckmann K, Geleff S, Prosch H, Klepetko W, Hoda MA. Multidisciplinary thoracic tumor board conferences—review of the literature and institutional experience. Transl Lung Cancer Res 2014;3(5):AB017. doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2218-6751.2014.AB017
