Held October 18, 2024, at Wynn Las Vegas
The pathology report does more than guide the care team in identifying the most effective treatment plan—it contributes to the broader understanding of disease across the health system. At the Future of Cancer Data Summit: Harnessing the Power of Pathology Data on October 18, we explored how to leverage pathology data to deepen disease insights, enhance treatment outcomes, and drive public health efforts.
We hope the Summit, along with these additional resources, will support your journey to fully unlocking the potential of pathology data within your organization—enhancing patient care, advancing research, fueling public health initiatives, and driving quality improvements.
Mark A. Lewis, MD
Director of Gastrointestinal Oncology
Intermountain Healthcare, Murray, UT
Drawing from his unique perspective as both an oncologist and a cancer survivor, Dr. Lewis explores the transformative impact of pathology data on the development of personalized treatment plans and improved long-term outcomes for cancer patients, sharing his vision for the future of collaboration between pathologists and oncologists.
Dr. Lewis discusses his experiences throughout his cancer diagnosis in his blog, Of Tumors and Men. Read his thoughts on the role of the pathologist in this post. Read more
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Jeffrey Gershenwald, MD
Professor
Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Learn about the critical importance of structured data and synoptic reports across the cancer care continuum, including how the CAP’s approach to synoptic reporting informed strategies for the recently deployed AJCC Cancer Staging Protocols and the American College of Surgeons Cancer Surgery Standards Program (CSSP).
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Paul Seegers
Sr. Advisor & Administrator, National Pathology & Molecular Protocols
Palga Foundation, Netherlands
Narrative reporting—evolving from transcription to speech recognition—has been the standard way to report diagnostic pathology findings. However, new reporting methods have emerged over the past decades, improving informational content and making reporting more structured and standardized.
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Michael A. Berman, MD, FCAP
Pathologist Emeritus
Mary Edgerton, MD, PhD, FCAP
Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology
University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Veronica Klepeis, MD, PhD, FCAP
Assistant in Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Instructor in Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Aaron Pollett, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Associate Professor
Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology
Ontario Health
Explore the significance of cancer data integration and discover how harnessing pathology data can enhance patient outcomes and inform clinical decision-making. Panelists demonstrate how they use pathology data to uncover transformative insights. This is an essential opportunity for healthcare professionals to understand the critical role of data integration in advancing medical care and research.
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John Groth, MD, FCAP Pathologist & Director of Informatics, Innovation and Technology Endeavor Health, Evanston, IL
Delve into the critical role of seamless data exchange in improving patient outcomes within the realm of digital pathology. Explore the complete patient data journey, highlighting the touchpoints where data flows between pathologists, clinicians, and patients. Learn about the impact of standardized synoptic reporting and interoperability on the accuracy and efficiency of pathology data, leading to significant quality improvements in patient care.
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W. Scott Campbell, PhD, MBA Associate Professor, Peter C. Hinrichs Endowed Chair of Informatics Director of Public Health Laboratory Informatics and Pathology Laboratory Informatics Department of Pathology/Microbiology University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Eric Daley, MS, PA (ASCP)CM Senior Clinical Product Manager Cancer Protocols and Data Standards College of American Pathologists
Alex Goel, MI CEO & Founder Topology Health, Toronto, Canada
Sandy Jones Public Health Advisor Cancer Surveillance Branch, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Explore how interoperability tools are revolutionizing cancer diagnostics. This panel examines how laboratories are integrating these tools into their cancer diagnostic workflows, highlighting SNOMED's ontological approach to utilizing electronic Cancer Protocols for research and report retrieval.
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Alison Van Dyke, MD, PhD Medical Officer—Research Data Quality, Analysis, and Interpretation Branch Surveillance Research Program National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Learn about the pathway for tumor data acquisition, from the pathology report to consolidation at the cancer registries and registry systems that are ultimately used in cancer research. Hear about the four pillars of data quality and an initiative by the CAP, the NCI, the CDC, and other collaborators to ensure tumor site and morphology are captured accurately by cancer registries.
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Find information about the latest cancer statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Read more
This ebook provides a guide for critical conversations about how the CAP electronic Cancer Protocols can streamline data collection and standardize cancer reporting, supporting better patient care, improving laboratory service levels, and informing research that drives advances in health care. Read more
This paper reviews the history of the Cancer Protocols and electronic Cancer Checklists, outlines the current use of these critically important cancer case reporting tools, and examines future directions, including plans to help improve the integration of the Cancer Protocols into clinical, public health, research, and other workflows. Read more
This August 2020 Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine article provides information about the capabilities of the electronic Cancer Checklists (eCC). By knowing the capabilities of the eCC, pathologists can be more aware of what to expect and what is possible from a prospective eCC vendor. Read more
The use of standardized structured reporting (SSR) can improve communication between cancer specialists. Through a retrospective cohort study in the Netherlands, we demonstrate that use of SSR improved patient care in those with colorectal cancer by providing more complete reports of higher quality, which had significant effects on the delivery of adjuvant therapy and patient outcomes. Read more
Three levels of population-based, cancer surveillance data are depicted in this diagram, including the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries, the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) data covering both SEER and CDC-supported National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACR) Cancer in North America (CiNA) data files. Information is provided on where to find data publicly available, data visualization tools, and the high-level steps to request access to the respective data. Read more
Learn more about electronic pathology (ePATH) reporting in this document. Read more
The CAP is connecting those interested in researching and publishing about cancer data into workgroups. If you’re interested, please complete the form below and indicate the type of projects on which you’d like to work.
Need additional information or want to speak with a member of the CAP electronic Cancer Protocols team?
Email Us TodayPaula Kim
Founder, Translating Research Across Communities (TRAC)
This paper reviews the history of the Cancer Protocols and electronic Cancer Checklists, outlines the current use of these critically important cancer case reporting tools, and examines future directions, including plans to help improve the integration of the Cancer Protocols into clinical, public health, research, and other workflows.
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Peter Paul Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO
Physician-in-Chief of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute
Clinical Member Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
As the breadth and intricacy of treatment options expand, the collaboration between pathologists and clinicians has never been more important. In this session, Dr. Peter Yu will discuss the role of the pathologist in helping clinicians and patients understand the increasingly complex pathology data that is now available. He will also explore the ways in which designing cancer data architecture improves interoperability for downstream clinical, research, and registry reporting needs, ensuring the best patient outcomes. As an example of how the increasing complexity of pathology practice impacts patient care, Dr. Yu will discuss the advancement of artificial intelligence and vision recognition of cancer and the tumor micro-environment on the future of cancer identification and treatment.
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Jaime Guidry Auvil, PhD
Director, Office of Data Sharing (ODS)
National Cancer Institute, NIH
With modern technology and tools, experts can glean powerful insights from high-quality, structured data exponentially faster and more accurately than ever before. National Cancer Institute (NCI) collects and shares multiple types of clinical care, population studies, and scientific research data that collectively can provide a comprehensive understanding of cancer subtypes, inform therapeutic strategies, and promote public health. To this end, NCI has established a flagship initiative focused on maximizing utility of these diverse data types in childhood cancers to serve as an exemplar in establishing federated learning across the broad cancer research and care spectrum. Dr. Guidry Auvil will discuss how NCI uses the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI) to provide a framework of data assembly, infrastructure, and utility to bridge patient care, public health, and cancer research through aligned and consistent approaches to data sharing. Development of a CCDI Data Ecosystem, which includes a National Childhood Cancer Registry (NCCR), to provide resources to the cancer community that improves data accessibility, promote collaborative research, and facilitate shared learning from the experiences of every pediatric cancer patient.
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Panel Discussion Moderated by Dr. Peter Yu
Michael Gurley, Administrative Director of Cancer Informatics
Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University
Brigette Rabel, Strategic Lead
British Columbia Provincial Health Services Authority
Ross Simpson, MD, Director, Laboratory Information System HealthPartners
Methodist Hospital/Park Nicollet Clinic
Each year, healthcare organizations generate amazing amounts of data, but it is often held in silos. Learn how our panelists are utilizing pathology data to uncover insights that transform patient care, quality improvement programs, and cancer research. Explore the importance of cancer data architecture to support clinical trial recruitment, biorepository annotation, chart-review studies, tumor registry operations, clinical trial case report form entry, and more. See how pathology data can be integrated to inform quality improvement initiatives and the impact on practice and patient outcomes.
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Alison Van Dyke, MD, PhD, FCAP
Data Quality, Analysis, & Interpretation Branch
Surveillance Research Program
Division of Cancer Control & Population Sciences
National Cancer Institute, NIH
Cancer registry data is used for research, public health evaluation, and cancer control, and to determine cancer prevention and research funding. The three most important data fields captured by cancer registrars from pathology reports are tumor site, histology, and behavior. However, variability in the terminology used and outdated cancer surveillance standards can lead to inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the data capture.
To address this issue, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and nine other North American and global partners are collaborating to conduct an overhaul—the first in over 15 years—of tumor site-histology combination standards for cancer surveillance.
In addition to presenting this initiative, Dr. Van Dyke will discuss the life cycle of pathology report data, informatics initiatives led by NCI to facilitate cancer registry data collection, and ways in which pathologists and others can access population-based cancer registry data for their own research.
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Matthew Oberley, MD, PhD, FCAP
Senior Vice President, Executive Medical Director
Caris Life Sciences
Comprehensive molecular profiling has become standard of care for advanced-stage cancer to identify the most appropriate therapeutic avenue. Molecular testing is also an integral part of the diagnostic workup of many cancer types, and as sequencing panels broaden there is increasing overlap between predictive and diagnostic molecular testing. Utilizing synoptic reporting templates provides guidelines to ensure each patient gets the appropriate standardized laboratory workup with all of the germane information gathered appropriately. Integrating biomarkers results directly into the synoptic reporting templates utilizing autopopulation helps to reduce pathologist need for direct data entry and can reduce the opportunity for data entry errors.