The Advisory Board on Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy: a virtual on-demand multidisciplinary tumour board

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Advisory Board on Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy

T2 - a virtual on-demand multidisciplinary tumour board

AU - Amant, Frédéric

AU - Heimovaara, Joosje H.

AU - Lok, Christianne A. R.

AU - van Calsteren, Kristel

N1 - Funding Information: These issues led us to the idea for an Advisory Board on Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy (ABCIP), working under the umbrella of the International Network on Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy. Our experience with the Dutch national email-based advisory board (ie, Adviesgroep Kanker en Zwangerschap) 9 and knowledge of the Serbian advisory board (ie, Tumor Board for Cancer and Human Reproduction) and the mail-based national advisory board in France (ie, Cancer Associé à La Grossesse) showed the potential of this plan but also the need for an improved functional model that is readily available to all physicians. Thanks to a proof-of-concept grant from the European Research Council and a grant from the Kom op tegen Kanker Foundation (Belgium), we were able to create an online platform for the ABCIP . The ABCIP is a collaboration of different national and regional advisory boards that work independently and discuss incoming advice requests from their region or country within their own board. An overarching international board handles patients with challenging disease or circumstances who need additional expertise and discusses patients from countries without a national or regional board. Physicians who wish to seek recommendations can submit their request and anonymous patient information free of charge and on the website, without a login or password. ABCIP boards are structured so that various medical specialists, including medical oncologists, gynaecological oncologists, maternal–fetal medicine specialists, paediatricians, surgical oncologists, haematologists, radiation oncologists, anaesthesiologists, clinical pharmacologists, medical physicists, and ethical advisors, are involved. All experts can discuss the incoming submissions at any time on a secured forum. The clinical case; potential fetotoxic exposure (eg, radiation exposure, use of radioactive molecules, systemic cytotoxic or modulating treatment, or pelvic surgery); effect of the pregnancy on the maternal outcome; and effect of the maternal disease, oncological treatment, and risk of maternal death on the obstetric and paediatric outcome of the child are carefully discussed within the advisory board. All input is merged in a formal personalised recommendation letter to the requesting physician. ABCIP aims to send back their recommendation within 4–7 days. Since its launch in May, 2021, ABCIP has given advice for more than 100 patients from more than 22 countries. Most discussions were regarding patients with breast cancer (n=35), haematological malignancies (n=18), cervical cancer (n=9), ovarian cancer (n=7), and sarcoma (n=5). Next to an international ABCIP, a Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Polish, and a Spanish–Ibero-American group also operate online. Here, we invite more countries and regions to join ABCIP.

PY - 2022/12/1

Y1 - 2022/12/1

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142790794&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00631-3

DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00631-3

M3 - Comment/Letter to the editor

C2 - 36356601

SN - 1470-2045

VL - 23

SP - 1484

EP - 1486

JO - The Lancet Oncology

JF - The Lancet Oncology

IS - 12

ER -