With the launch of the online ASCO Tumor Board module on Pancreatic Cancer on ASCO University^®, a new alliance has been forged between frontline organizations in the oncology community. Together ASCO, the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (formerly known as The ASCO Cancer Foundation), and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network are reaching out to oncologists nationwide with the latest scientific advances in pancreatic cancer and the best information on available treatment options.

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is a nationwide network of people dedicated to working together to advance research, support patients, and create hope for those affected by pancreatic cancer. A crucial component of Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s mission lies in encouraging collaboration and sharing knowledge among those who care for patients with pancreatic cancer, making a collaboration between Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, ASCO, and the Conquer Cancer Foundation a natural fit.

Oncology professionals need targeted training in order to provide patients with pancreatic cancer with proper diagnoses and treatment. To meet this urgent need, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and ASCO have developed the ASCO Tumor Board: Pancreatic Cancer module, which offers the most up-to-date information, tools, and resources needed to effectively work with this important and growing patient population.

The ASCO Tumor Board: Pancreatic Cancer module is available online through ASCO University, an educational platform launched in 2009 to support ASCO’s mission as the premier resource for education and information for oncologists. ASCO University serves as the educational home and source of lifelong learning opportunities for practicing oncologists, residents, fellows, and other oncology professionals practicing in all subspecialties of oncology.

The educational modules available online through ASCO University incorporate flexible, robust curricula with collateral products that translate key learning principles into interactive educational experiences. The ASCO Tumor Board: Pancreatic Cancer module features both a patient-based case study by experts in the field of pancreatic cancer, and an open discussion forum, which facilitates active, case-related discussion among colleagues and faculty. The case, commentary, and discussion board questions and answers will remain available on ASCO University for at least a year.

All of the educational materials and resources presented in the ASCO Tumor Board: Pancreatic Cancer module, like all of the modules in this series, are guided by Tumor Board moderators Bhoomi Mehrotra, MD, and Robert Mennel, MD, of the ASCO Education Products Subcommittee. As part of the standard practice, this module has gone through the ASCO review process, thus ensuring high-quality and unbiased content. Representatives from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and their Medical Advisory Council also have played an integral part in the development of the module.

Beyond its cutting-edge content and methods, the ASCO Tumor Board: Pancreatic Cancer module provides oncologists with an eLearning opportunity that comes directly to them where they practice, available 24 hours a day so that participants may complete the module at their own pace and on their own time. This flexibility dramatically widens the reach of the program, in turn increasing the number of patients with pancreatic cancer who are receiving the best possible care.

The ASCO Tumor Board: Pancreatic Cancer module joins similar ASCO University modules on non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian carcinoma, colorectal cancer, renal cell carcinoma, carcinoma of unknown primary, melanoma, mantle cell lymphoma, glioblastoma, and sarcoma. All modules are available at university.asco.org/tumorboards.

Article originally printed in the 2011 Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium Daily News