The Association of Cancer Physicians

This initiative has been set up to promote the earlier diagnosis of cancer. As we know, some of the apparent poor outcomes of patients in the UK is due to late presentation to primary and secondary care, and therefore more advanced disease. This initiative has been set up with partnership between the Department of Health, National Cancer Action Team, and Cancer Research UK. You can read details at CRUK and NCIN.

We have a closed ACP forum for members only, hosted free by Doctors.net. In the past postings have been limited to a few contributors and if this continues, what could be a very useful resource will be lost.

Remember it is:

• Free
• Open to, and accessible only by, ACP members
• A great place to share views on relevant issues such as training, NCAG, NCEPOD, and even compare notes on tricky cases.

This meeting organised by Peter Selby took place in Leeds on the 23rd March 2010. It was kindly supported by Amgen and Sanofi-Aventis. The focus was on the development of Acute Oncology services in response to the NCEPOD and NCAG reports. Other areas covered included the management of carcinoma of unknown primary; this dovetails with acute oncology services and will be addressed in upcoming NICE guidance. In addition delegates were given updates on critical care, cardiology, renal medicine and bone marrow transplantation. The main presentations are included here for download as pdfs. I have also included related presentations from the New Consultants Group meeting. UPDATE 17.05.2010: NEW PRESENTATIONS ONLINE. VIDEOS TO COME SOON.

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has carried out a project looking at how people who are admitted as emergencies and then turn out to have cancer are managed. This information can be used to optimise pathways of care. You can read the background to this work and the report Focus on: Sick Patients with Suspected Cancer which was published in June 2009. It provides a useful resource on which to base service improvement; an OncoAlert tool has been developed.

Dr Ernie Marshall, a medical oncologist based at Clatterbridge, works closely with Prof. Peter Clark who led development of the NCAG report. In the attached presentation kindly shared, he describes how they have set up an Acute Oncology service locally. Dr Pauline Leonard, based at the Whittington in London has also developed a local acute oncology servce and kindly supplied her updated presentation. Both of these resources will be useful for others planning to do the same in their region. UPDATE 23/12/2009: Dr Marshall has given a very useful interview to Doctors.net about Acute Oncology. Membership of Doctors.net is free to GMC registered medics and you can download the podcast here.

As a relatively new consultant I have found that the number of committees, quangos, reports and initiatives that exist can become a confusing mess. There are a few people who are in touch with what is going on politically, and a whole lot more who are pretty much in the dark. In this article I hope to summarise my understanding of some of the stuff you should know something about. Please contact me with corrections or updates.