Multidisciplinary Clinics
Many of the recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer require close collaboration between cancer specialists, having differing areas of expertise.
The Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Multidisciplinary Cancer Clinic brings these specialists together to evaluate each patient's case and then meet individually with the patient to discuss treatment options.
A plan that would normally take weeks to develop is completed in a single day and treatment can begin quickly.
During the Visit
While the patients are watching a video providing an overview of the specific cancer and its treatment options, the multidisciplinary team meets to discuss each case and determine the best treatment option. Then each specialist meets individually with the patient to explain the treatment choices and answer questions.
The patients are also given a packet of information detailing the information provided during the information video and other reference materials, as well as information regarding appropriate clinical trials.
Multidisciplinary Clinics:
- Breast cancer
- Central nervous system tumors (Redwood City)
- Pediatric Cancer Survivorship
- Prostate cancer
- Thoracic and upper gastrointestinal cancer
Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards
According to the National Cancer Institute definition, a tumor board review is:
“A treatment planning approach in which a number of doctors who are experts in different specialties (disciplines) review and discuss the medical condition and treatment options of a patient. In cancer treatment, a tumor board review may include that of a medical oncologist (who provides cancer treatment with drugs), a surgical oncologist (who provides cancer treatment with surgery), and a radiation oncologist (who provides cancer treatment with radiation).”
Our Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards
- Meets regularly
- Participants: surgeon, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathologist, radiologist, care coordinator, case manager, medical student, resident
- Review imaging studies and pathology of each case
- Discuss stage-specific care recommendations
- Review current literature
Our tumor boards include:
- General Multidisciplinary Tumor Board
- Breast Multidisciplinary tumor board
- Prostate Multidisciplinary tumor board
- Head and neck Multidisciplinary tumor board
- CNS (?) Multidisciplinary tumor board
- Pediatric Multidisciplinary tumor board with UCSF
- Pediatric Multidisciplinary local tumor board
