From the Guidelines
A lung cancer tumor board is convened to provide multidisciplinary evaluation and management recommendations for complex lung cancer cases, with the primary goal of improving patient outcomes by leveraging collective expertise and standardizing care according to current guidelines, as supported by the most recent evidence from 1. The reasons for convening a tumor board include:
- Developing comprehensive treatment plans for newly diagnosed patients
- Addressing challenging diagnostic dilemmas where tissue samples are limited or inconclusive
- Managing cases with unusual histology or molecular profiles
- Evaluating treatment options for locally advanced or metastatic disease
- Reassessing management when patients experience disease progression or treatment complications These collaborative meetings facilitate discussion of patients who might benefit from enrollment in clinical trials, coordinate multimodality therapy timing, and ensure appropriate molecular testing is performed to guide targeted therapy selection, as recommended by 1 and supported by earlier guidelines from 1 and 1. The composition of a tumor board typically includes thoracic surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists, radiologists, and other specialists who collectively review patient cases to determine optimal treatment strategies, with the goal of personalizing treatment approaches based on each patient's specific disease characteristics, comorbidities, and preferences, as emphasized by 1. The use of a multidisciplinary tumor board is essential in lung cancer management, as it has been shown to improve patient outcomes by providing more complete staging, better adherence to guidelines, and increased survival, as demonstrated by 1.
From the Research
Reasons for Convening a Lung Cancer Tumor Board
- Improve patient care and quality of life by discussing cases in a multidisciplinary setting 2, 3
- Increase adherence to national guidelines and streamline patient care 2, 4
- Enhance diagnosis of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer and the use of diagnostic workups 2
- Select appropriate therapy based on comprehensive molecular characteristics of tumors 5
- Tailor treatment to individual patients to achieve long-term survival with a good quality of life 5
- Reduce time to staging in lung cancer by discussing cases at pre-diagnosis multidisciplinary tumor boards 6
- Increase patient enrollment onto clinical trials 4
- Improve rates of curative-intent surgery for stage I to II non-small-cell lung cancer 4
Benefits of Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards
- Allow for comprehensive discussion of patient cases and development of individualized treatment plans 2, 5, 6, 4, 3
- Facilitate collaboration among healthcare professionals from different specialties 2, 5, 6, 4, 3
- Enable rapid identification and discussion of complex cases 3
- Provide a systematic approach to dealing with simple cases 3