Princess Margaret surgical oncologists have taken an active role in the development of the cancer surgery organization for the Province of Ontario. This leadership has addressed improving access to quality care, the development of organizational standards for regionalization of highly complex cancer surgeries, and predicting and planning of surgical oncology resources for the future. The work we've done includes:
- Preparing the Report of the Cancer Surgery Expert Panel, a strategic plan for the delivery of cancer services in the Province of Ontario, commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
- Developing the
Target Wait Times for Cancer Surgery in Ontario guidelines, in collaboration with the Clinical Expert Panel Chairs for Access to Care, the Program in Evidence Based Care and guidelines developed by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
- Developing the Practical Guide for Clinicians–Surgical Oncology in collaboration with the Cancer Surgery Expert Panel
Cancer Surgery Services Planning & Prediction
In December 2008, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) released
The Cancer Surgery Atlas. The report aims to inform regional, population-based planning and to support policy-making for cancer surgery services. Five cancer sites are addressed: breast, colorectal, lung, prostate and gynecologic. CCO is working to ensure the data are used effectively to improve quality and access in the system.
Organizational standards have been developed to regionalize highly complex cancer surgeries to highly specialized multidisciplinary centres and to encourage multidisciplinary consultation and conferencing:
Princess Margaret surgical oncologists have been instrumental in providing leadership in practice guidelines in breast, prostate and colorectal cancer surgery:
- Expert Panel on Prostate Cancer Surgery and Pathology (2008). Guideline for Optimization of Surgical and Pathological Quality Performance for Radical Prostatectomy in Prostate Cancer Management: Surgical and Pathological Guidelines. Cancer Care Ontario.
- Expert Panel on Colon and Rectal Cancer Surgery and Pathology (2008). Optimization of Surgical and Pathological Quality Performance in Radical Surgery for Colon and Rectal Cancer: Margins and Lymph Nodes Guideline Recommendations. Cancer Care Ontario.
- Panel on SLNB in Breast Cancer (2009). Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Early-Stage Breast Cancer: Guideline Recommendations. Cancer Care Ontario.
- Mediastinal Staging Expert Panel (2010). Invasive Mediastinal Staging of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. Cancer Care Ontario.
