VICS Optimal Care Summits pancreatic cancer consultation 2022

A second pancreatic cancer consultation was held by the VICS Optimal Care Summits program in 2022.

The summit event on 26 August 2022 was held online due to COVID considerations. Ninety active participants learned of improvements to Victorian pancreatic cancer care since the 2017 summit, including the Care Plus early palliative care implementation project.

Recommendations

The working group recommended actions to address 3 key areas of variation in care:

1. Increase the rate of access to multidisciplinary meeting (MDM) discussion of pancreatic cancer patients, both non-metastatic & metastatic, through MDM redesign
2. Explore timeliness of chemotherapy data to determine if this is an issue locally
3. Increase the number of metastatic pancreatic cancer patients identified and offered or accepting referral to palliative care services 3 months prior to death, to at least 50% by 2025.

Impacts

Following the 2022 pancreatic cancer summit, NEMICS and SMICS piloted a new radiological synoptic report for classifying and documenting resectability in pancreatic cancer. The synoptic report is now being trialled nationally by Monash University and the Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry, in the SCANPatient randomised clinical trial.

Summit records

• Introduction presentation video
• Policy context presentation video
• Progress update video
• Data presentation video
• Consumer perspective video
• Care Plus early palliative care integration project video
• ICS priorities graphic (PDF)
• Data presentation (PDF)
• Summit summary report (PDF)
• Summit evaluation (PDF)
• Data summary report (PDF).

Expert advisory group

• A/Prof. Charles Pilgrim (Co-chair) – Hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) surgeon, Alfred Health and Cabrini Health
• Prof. Niall Tebbutt (Co-chair) – Director of Medical Oncology, Austin Health
• A/Prof. Saleh Abbas – Surgeon, Barwon Health
• Dr Rob Blum – Medical oncologist, Bendigo Health
• Dr Dan Croagh – HPB surgeon, Monash Health
• Dr Michelle Gold – Director of Palliative Care, Alfred Health
• Dr Richard Khor – Radiation oncologist, Austin Health
• Dr Belinda Lee – Medical oncologist, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
• A/Prof. Lara Lipton – Medical oncologist, Western Health and Cabrini Health
• Dr Ben Loveday – Surgeon, Royal Melbourne Hospital
• Dr Andrew Lowe – Surgeon, Ballarat Health Services
• Dr Mehrdad Nikfarjam – HPB Surgeon, Austin Health and Warringal Hospital
• Dr Jennifer Philip – Deputy Director of Palliative Care, St Vincent’s Hospital
• Dr Simone Steel – Medical oncologist, Frankston
• A/Prof. Valery Usatoff – HPB surgeon, Western Health and Alfred Health
• Prof. John Zalcberg – UGI cancer registry custodian, Monash University.