Implementation of a Palliative Oncology Tumor Board

The integration of palliative care into standard oncologic care has been shown to improve multiple outcomes in patients with advanced cancer. Ideal methods for integrating these disciplines is an ongoing area of discussion. One method of integration is a palliative oncology tumor board (POTB).

To describe the implementation of a POTB in a community cancer center as a method of integrating oncology and palliative care by providing a forum for multidisciplinary discussion of complex cases.

During development of the POTB, multiple influencing factors and barriers were considered including the setting of implementation, culture prior to implementation, design elements, engagement of stakeholders, and evaluation of implementation. The focus of this POTB was to address the identified communication gap between inpatient and outpatient care teams. Two complex hospitalized oncology patients were selected to be discussed weekly.

Conferences were attended by an average of 23 individuals. The highest proportion of attendees were members of oncology support services (including nurse navigators, social workers, chaplains, dietitians, financial counselors; OSS; 31%), followed by medical oncology (25%). The most common theme of discussion was methods of communication with patient and/or family (68% of cases). Thirty days after presentation, a total of 50 new referrals were placed to inpatient palliative care, OSS, and outpatient palliative care and 11 new advance care plans were documented in the electronic medical record.

This paper describes a sustainable method to implement a POTB in a community cancer center setting, which is one method of integrating palliative care into standard oncologic care.