A Multidisciplinary Cancer Center Maximizes Surgeons’ Impact

Integrated care in cancer: What is it, how is it used and where are the gaps? A textual narrative literature synthesis

“…38 publications were included in the review (Table ). Papers originated from Australia (Le et al., ), the UK (Gage et al., ; Letton, Cheung, & Nordin, ; Murchie, Hannaford, Wyke, Nicolson, & Campbell, ; Selwood, ; Sharpe et al., ; Walker, Hansen, et al., ; Walker, Walker, et al., ), Europe (Ben‐Arye, Schiff, Raz, Samuels, & Lavie, ; Ben‐Arye et al., ; Camps et al., ; Colombet et al., ; Coriat et al., ; Gaertner et al., ; Hanan et al., ; van Hoeve, de Munck, Otter, de Vries, & Siesling, ; Ouwens, Hermens, et al., ; Popper‐Giveon, Schiff, & Ben‐Arye, ; Popper‐Giveon, Schiff, Hatem, Samuels, & Ben‐Arye, ; Prades & Borras, ; Pugliese et al., ; Savio et al., ), North America (Bekelman et al., ; Bjegovich‐Weidman et al., ; Brazier, Cooke, & Moravan, ; Bruera et al., ; Chubak et al., ; Delaney et al., ; Douglas & Daly, ; Hofstatter, Saadati, Russell, & III Russell, ; Hui et al., ; Hydeman, ; Judge Santacroce, Asmus, Kadan‐Lottick, & Grey, ; Kligler et al., ; Marshall et al., ; Prince‐Paul, Burant, Saltzman, Teston, & Matthews, ; Tam et al., ; Temel et al., ) and South America (Rugno, Paiva, & Paiva, ).…”

“…79% (30/38) of papers had a focus on horizontal integration, improving the coordination of cancer care within the specialist or tertiary setting. Three main approaches were utilised within this group of studies: expansion of multidisciplinary care team (Delaney et al., ; Douglas & Daly, ; Judge Santacroce et al., ; Prince‐Paul et al., ; Pugliese et al., ; Savio et al., ; Sharpe et al., ; Walker, Hansen, et al., ; Walker, Walker, et al., ), enhancing the functioning of the multidisciplinary care team (Bekelman et al., ; Bjegovich‐Weidman et al., ; Coriat et al., ; Letton et al., ; Marshall et al., ; Ouwens, Hermens, et al., ; Selwood, ), and facilitating coordination between specialist care teams such as palliative care (Colombet et al., ; Gaertner et al., ; Hui et al., ; Hydeman, ; Le et al., ; Rugno et al., ; Temel et al., ), complementary medicine(Ben‐Arye et al., , ; Gage et al., ; Kligler et al., ), and other medical specialties. Organisational level integration was addressed in two studies examining the impact of colocation of care providers treating prostate cancer (Bruera et al., ; Hofstatter et al., ).…”

“…Half of the papers (19/38) were conducted in populations that had a specific cancer type including prostate (Bekelman et al., ), lung (Bjegovich‐Weidman et al., ; Chubak et al., ; Douglas & Daly, ; Le et al., ; Temel et al., ; Walker, Hansen, et al., ), breast (Chubak et al., ; van Hoeve et al., ; Rugno et al., ; Tam et al., ), colorectal (Chubak et al., ; Douglas & Daly, ; Marshall et al., ; Pugliese et al., ), gynaecological (Douglas & Daly, ; Letton et al., ; Rugno et al., ) glioma (Delaney et al., ), melanoma (Murchie et al., )and head and neck (Ouwens, Hermens, et al., ) or were age group specific (Judge Santacroce et al., ; Savio et al., ; Selwood, ). Almost all (34/38) papers addressed the diagnosis and treatment phase, ten of which were not phase‐specific (Brazier et al., ; Bruera et al., ; Camps et al., ; Gage et al., ; Hanan et al., ; Popper‐Giveon et al., , ; Sharpe et al., ; Tam et al., ; Walker, Hansen, et al., ; Walker, Walker, et al., ).…”

“…Non‐cancer conditions were specifically addressed in three studies published by the same research group examining psychosocial interventions for people living with cancer and comorbid depression (Sharpe et al., ; Walker, Hansen, et al., ; Walker, Walker, et al., ). Six publications explored integration initiatives to enhance the delivery of cancer treatment and follow up through strategies including the colocation of multidisciplinary cancer services for prostate (Bekelman et al., ) and colorectal cancer (Marshall et al., ), development of cancer services within existing integrated delivery systems (Bjegovich‐Weidman et al., ; Chubak et al., ; Tam et al., ), implementation of an integrated care pathway for hospital management of breast cancer (van Hoeve et al., ) and shared care to provide community based follow up for patients with malignant melanoma (Murchie et al., ).…”

It Takes a Village: Defining the Value of Dedicated Multidisciplinary Teams in Cancer Outcomes

“…The report, A Multidisciplinary Cancer Center Maximizes Surgeons' Impact, by Marshall et al [1], sheds important light on the distinct role that dedicated multidisciplinary teams play, beyond patient volume and surgeon specialization, in affecting patient outcomes. Even in the age of molecular medicine, surgery remains an essential treatment for colorectal cancer, and multimodality cancer care requires a high degree of coordination by a hospital and its providers.…”