The Art and Science of New Possibilities in Cancer Care
From May 30th to June 2nd, over 40,000 people from across the oncology community gathered at Chicago’s McCormick Place and online for the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting. As the world’s “most significant” meeting of oncology professionals, ASCO always brings important scientific news and insights about cancer treatment to the forefront. However, this year, ASCO focused on the less tangible qualities of care, too, with its theme, “The Art and Science of Cancer Care: From Comfort to Cure.”
Presenters focused on more than potentially practice-changing science. They also spoke about the human elements that make effective treatment possible. Our Avant Healthcare team took a divide-and-conquer approach, taking in as many of the 200+ sessions as we could. While we couldn’t see them all, we did come back with three powerful learnings.
There’s an Art to Patient Care
Patients are at the heart of oncology, and this year’s meeting emphasized that patient care goes beyond clinical treatment plans. Effective treatment requires a holistic approach—one that considers not only the best potential intervention but the patient’s mental and emotional well-being. The patient’s role in clinical decision-making must not be understated. Patients should be engaged in meaningful discussions about their treatment options, treatment goals, and their immediate and long-term concerns.
During the opening session, Dr. Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP spoke about the time-honored ritual of the patient exam and how it presents a unique opportunity to enter into a space where trust, connection, and joy can occur between the provider and the patient. While HCPs cannot always cure their patients, there is a unique distinction between cure and healing—and there is always an ability to help a patient heal.
For providers to be in the illness with their patients, if only for five minutes, would allow the patient to really be seen. By establishing this empathetic moment, patients are heard and valued. They will feel as if decisions are being made with them rather than about them.
Provider self-care is another critical aspect of the care continuum. Oncology can be emotionally and physically draining. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure the well-being of the care team, so they can deliver effective, high-quality patient care.
While provider self-care is important, so is the well-being of caregivers. The presence of a strong support network is essential for patients—and for their caregivers and healthcare providers. In oncology, community is a critical component for everyone—doctors, nurses, specialists, caregivers, and the patients themselves.
The takeaway: Support the art of clinical practice.
Tools that assist HCPs in having quality conversations with their patients along the treatment continuum can help ease the HCP burden while achieving the quality of care that all patients deserve. In addition, quality-of-life data and real-world evidence can play a larger role in providing HCPs with the information they need to address the nuances of each person’s condition.
Science is Transforming Technology, Testing, and Treatment
The integration of AI and other innovative technologies in oncology represents a transformative shift toward more personalized and effective care. These technologies are leading to more and better treatment options and potentially better patient outcomes. They’re also enhancing communication, making information more accessible, and helping to bridge gaps in patient education and equitable treatment.
Several presentations and discussions centered around AI as the HCP’s personal assistant, which could provide suggestions for the next best step (in testing or result interpretation) or lead to more complete charting. With support from AI, HCPs could be more engaged with their patients since they won’t have to spend their time looking at their computer screens during the exam.
It could be a game changer for overburdened HCPs, and the potential patient benefits are just as exciting. Likewise, with support from AI, patients could arrive at their office visits able to ask more informed and robust questions about their diagnosis. This could really help level the playing field in terms of the knowledge gaps that exist across a wide variety of populations.
Innovations in AI and improved testing methods facilitate better screening and earlier diagnosis, and they could potentially help predict response or progression and determine the need for continued treatment.
These advancements also bring challenges, however. While they can lead to earlier diagnosis and more tailored treatment plans, they may also inadvertently widen disparities in healthcare access and outcomes. As these technologies and available treatment options continue to evolve, continued efforts toward equitable access are crucial.
The takeaway: AI will become an important tool that can help HCPs make better decisions.
AI isn’t perfect. It doesn’t account for bias, and it will never replace the need for HCPs and their skills. However, AI can help support some of the more taxing areas of the profession and ease the burden on HCPs.
Still, AI outputs need further refinement, which can be achieved by developing and integrating more disease state, staging, and lines of therapy education tools into AI and EMR workstreams. With this, HCPs will be able to make more informed decisions, helping to provide the best options to meet a patient’s life and treatment goals. It will also enable HCPs to provide easily digestible, accessible, and translatable information in response to patient questions.
As Science Advances, so Must the Art of Patient Care
With current and future scientific advances providing new opportunities for patients and their care teams, the art of patient care becomes more challenging. While ultimately improving outcomes, the shift toward more frequent and earlier testing, the increase in targeted therapies, and novel personalized treatment strategies like CAR-T and tumor neoantigen vaccines may also lead to increased time to treatment initiation, creating a need for healthcare providers to manage patient expectations and anxieties differently. The ability to explain complex testing procedures, novel treatment strategies and the potential waiting period that accompanies these advancements is critical.
At ASCO, Director of the National Cancer Institute Dr. Kim Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC, FASCO implored that no one can do this alone. We need everyone united in the goal of achieving a future where cancer is a manageable disease. There is a place for all of us on this journey—scientists, researchers, clinicians, industry, patients, caregivers, and advocacy—and we need to work together. Through dialog and debate, we will create better solutions and improve cancer treatment.
As we move forward, integrating scientific advancements with the art of patient care will be crucial in addressing the complex needs of cancer patients, caregivers, and cancer survivors, ultimately paving the way for a future where cancer care is more personalized, effective, and compassionate. It will make a huge difference for everyone in the oncology community.
The takeaway: We must call upon both the art and the science of cancer care to fully address and treat our patients.
While data can be seen as the headline, the supporting cast is the art of communication. Telling a compelling story to HCPs and arming them with the tools to more fully support their patients will lead to the most impactful cancer care.
Interested in learning more about translating data and science into meaningful stories that yield compelling results? Contact us to see what is possible for your brand.