Accessing Multidisciplinary NET Care From the Community

Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, and Simron Singh, MD, MPH, of Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, offer US and Canadian perspectives on how community clinicians can access multidisciplinary input for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), moderated by Daniel M. Halperin, MD, of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Strosberg says much of NET care can be duplicated in community practice, but he still favors academic referral because NETs offer multiple options that have not been compared with one another, so experience and individualized discussion matter more than in algorithmic cancers. Singh describes a partnership model in which his referral center provides opinions and multidisciplinary planning, often virtually, while treatment is carried out closer to home by community partners. His institution runs a weekly online tumor board open to community providers and a monthly provincial tumor board, and he finds that patients and community doctors both value the reassurance that the chosen path is the right one.