Cancer IQ

The December 2022 edition of our Six to Skim series caps off our year with fresh takes on precision prevention news. We're looking forward to what's ahead in 2023!

Check out the latest top content curated for CancerIQ's community of oncologists, genetic counselors, breast centers, primary care providers, and anyone interested in staying ahead of cancer as the year comes to a close.

December Precision Prevention News: Six to Skim Your curated December 2022 articles from trusted sources, keeping you up-to-date on cancer prevention, precision medicine & oncology, health equity, & more

"A woman in her 50s showed up with a hallmark sign of ovarian cancer — a bloated belly." Though "the woman had mentioned this and other symptoms to her primary care doctor elsewhere in the past ... her doctor never asked about any family history of the disease — a glaring omission, since the woman’s mother had died of ovarian cancer in her 30s."

"'It was such a missed opportunity to refer her for genetic counseling or testing,'" said Dr. Katharine Esselen of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Providers should note that while most EHRs offer clinical decision support for cancer screening, these CDS tools often assume all patients are of average risk. If your software isn't incorporating genetics, family history, lifestyle and screening adherence risk, these patients remain vulnerable to a late-stage, preventable diagnosis.

A lethal cancer’s long reach - Harvard Health Family history is the top risk factor for ovarian cancer, which is diagnosed in 20,000 American women annually. Symptoms are often vague until the disease is advanced, making it hard to detect. Wom...

Happy, Healthy Holidays from all of us on Team CancerIQ! Thank you for an impactful year helping us end cancer as we know it.

We're ready to keep making equitable, accessible precision care a reality for every patient in 2023 and beyond, and we hope you'll join us.

If you read one thing before logging for for the holidays, it should be this incisive look at the consequences of not prioritizing preventive oncology – for both patients and profit – by Sanjula Jain, Ph.D.

"The current data paint an ominous landscape of the future of cancer care and indicate that the drop in screenings and preventive measures may be more than just a temporary byproduct of the pandemic. .It might take several years for us to grasp the consequences of missed cancer screenings and diagnoses. In that time, hundreds of thousands will be diagnosed with cancer and many will lose their battle. If [we] don’t act now to manage this emerging health crisis, we stand to face a potentially unpreventable wave of cancer cases, including more advanced-stage cases, across the population."

Undiagnosed cancer could be the next health crisis — and we aren’t ready The National Cancer Institute and several other health care organizations last month released their 2022 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, which found that, prior to the pandemic…

This year marks “one of the worst financial years on record for hospitals,” according to Kaufman Hall. In this environment, the usual hospital revenue generation strategies won’t get off the ground. Going into 2023, hospital leaders will need to find ways to drive greater incremental revenue with the resources they already have.

You might be missing a significant portion of your patient population who would benefit from billable clinical services, like colonoscopies, breast MRIs and prophylactic surgeries. Read on to find out why preventive oncology that capture these patients – which is good for both patients and profit – should be on the top of every health system’s priority list.

Why Preventive Oncology is Good for Patients and Profit CancerIQ data shows 2 in 5 patients who undergo comprehensive cancer risk assessment and genetic testing require a change in medical management.

What most influences the underutilization of genetic testing and counseling? "The lack of an effective protocol to signal physicians" it's indicated. That's why we're working to arm every provider with the technology that incorporates comprehensive risk factors and cross references them with the most-up-to-date guidelines to increase uptake and adherence.

This urology practice's adoption of a guideline-based point-of-care risk assessment and testing protocol "approximately tripled the rate of patient compliance with recommended genetic testing: from 33.3% to 98.7%."

Genetic testing for prostate cancer increases after introduction of point-of-care program Some patients with prostate cancer have genetic mutations that may impact their treatment. A comprehensive, on-site genetic testing program, pioneered by urolog

A new skin cancer vaccine is delivering on the promises of personalized care pathways, and Dr. Stephen Hoge says "'this is a transformational moment for the field.' The key to the vaccine’s success is that it was tailored to each patient’s tumor, allowing each patient to mount a precise and targeted response to their cancer."

Personalized cancer vaccines may be on the way, but until they become widely available, health systems can start seeing the clinical and financial benefits of personalized care even sooner. The future of oncology focuses on moving upstream to intercept patients before a cancer diagnosis even occurs – enter precision prevention. Stay tuned for more from CancerIQ on how we're making this possible at scale.

Moderna's mRNA Skin Cancer Vaccine Shows Early Promise in a New Study The company reported encouraging results from a small study

aims to help everyone from providers to patients understand the benefits of early cancer screening.

But today's typical patient who walks in with a late-stage cancer diagnosis is not the one who has diligently followed current, one-size fits all screening guidelines. Instead, it’s the 30-year-old who didn’t qualify for a colonoscopy yet and didn’t know they carried a genetic mutation that elevated their risk.

How can we remove barriers to precision screening and prevention? Everyone in the healthcare ecosystem has a role in ensuring patients at elevated risk aren't falling through the cracks. https://bit.ly/3F8w0LY

Trudy Orthey "learned she had a BRCA2 gene mutation after a family member’s cancer diagnosis ... [she] decided to have genetic testing and counseling, which confirmed that she had a BRCA2 mutation. Although she quickly decided to have preventive surgery, she was focused on helping her sister through cancer treatment and put off scheduling her own procedures."

A year later, Orthey underwent a prophylactic double mastectomy and oophorectomy, which revealed she had ovarian cancer.

Too many patients share this story – even those known to have actionable hereditary risk factors or genetic mutations, often delay, or never receive, the appropriate medical management changes to help them stay ahead of cancer.

Ovarian Cancer Survivor: Learning about BRCA Saved My Life Trudy Orthey says learning she carried a BRCA2 gene mutation saved her life. Thanks to the early diagnosis, her ovarian cancer treatment was successful.

Start your weekend catching up with November's latest in precision prevention news, curated for CancerIQ's community of oncologists, genetic counselors, breast centers, primary care providers, and anyone interested in staying ahead of cancer.

November 2022 Precision Prevention News: Six to Skim Your curated November 2022 articles from trusted sources, keeping you up-to-date on cancer prevention, precision medicine & oncology, health equity, and more.