Oncology Resources For Pharmacists Looking To Develop Their Skills
Can you easily keep up with historical and new oncology information? Do you have one of those photographic memories that allows you to memorize content? Do you manage the care of all cancers so you can easily recall the important facts about each one when needed?
No? Me neither!
I am often asked about where to find oncology resources. There are a lot of great places for oncology-specific content; however, it’s spread over the vast worldwide web. When I come across good resources, I save them. What follows is the accumulation of that list.
Here are the sections I’ve included:
Let oncology updates come to you
There is a podcast for everything today, including oncology resources
Oncology Treatment Guidelines
Oncology Patient Education Resources
Oncology Clinical Information
Oncology Organizations
Oncology Continuing Education
Other Useful Resources
Let oncology updates come to you
I know we all get bombarded with email every day which is why I am selective about emails I choose to subscribe to. Getting healthcare push content is helpful to me because it would take me longer to curate those headlines on my own – plus, if my inbox is particularly overwhelming, I’ll skip them that day. I recommend experimenting with 1 and assessing if you like the content you get.
FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Drug Updates – you can select what kind of updates you want (and there are a lot!)
OBR (Oncology Business Review) – daily email updates on priority oncology topics
Helio – you can sign up for a variety of eNewsletters and alerts (sign up is in the page footer)
The Healthcare Loop – daily emails that you can customize by keyword
ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) – you can sign up for a table of contents push or daily/weekly news updates
ecancer – this site continues to grow and has some good video discussions with clinicians on a variety of oncology topics.
There is a podcast for everything today, including oncology resources
I love podcasts – they can make learning new information so easy. I only wish they all made transcripts for our hearing impaired colleagues. Here are a few to put on your radar:
OncoPharm – John Bossaer is an Associate Professor at East Tennessee State University and does a fantastic job delivering useful and engaging content on pertinent oncology topics. Most episodes are <30 minutes which makes this material very easy to squeeze into tight schedules.
The Fellow On Call is a podcast from 3 physicians that are hematology/oncology fellows. Their goal is to bring you the fundamentals, core concepts, and important management approaches in the field, driven by the latest evidence and expert opinion.
ASCO produces 9 different podcast programs on a variety of topics!
ACCC Cancer Buzz – ACCC (Association of Community Cancer Centers) describes their podcast as fresh perspectives on hot topics in oncology care delivery. I recently listed to one about rural cancer care that was fantastic.
DISCO (Drug Information Soundcast in Clinical Oncology) – these short podcast episodes are produced by the FDA and discuss drug approvals in oncology indications. The most recent one listed is from April 2019 but hopefully, they will continue to produce them.
OBR Podcasts – this series is moderated by the OBR editor-in-chief, Robert Figlin, MD. These short episodes (<20 minutes) generally focus on conference updates so if you’re wondering what the experts have to say about a particular finding presented at an academic meeting, this is a great place to check.
Plenary Session – A podcast on medicine, oncology, & health policy by Vinay Prasad, MD MPH from Oregon Health & Science University. He is particularly skilled at calling out poorly designed studies.
Oncology Today with Dr. Neil Love – Medical oncologist Neil Love interviews preeminent oncology clinical investigators.
Oncology Treatment Guidelines
NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network) is a not-for-profit alliance of 30 cancer centers whose vision is to define and advance high-quality, high-value, patient-centered cancer care globally.
NCCN guidelines are probably the most recognized by pharmacists, and they are possibly the most intimidating. You can sign up for a free account and get access to their guidelines that are grouped into:
Treatment of Cancer by Site (there are 54 as of this writing so I won’t list them all 😊- click on “NCCN Guidelines” on their homepage to find the full list)
Detection, Prevention, and Risk Reduction
Supportive Care
Specific Populations (adolescent and young adult, HIV, older adults)
Patients (more in patient resources below)
There are many other resources NCCN offers with a subscription service, such as treatment templates and the biomarkers compendium.
Things to note about NCCN guidelines for those unfamiliar:
Most of the guidelines are giant 😊 (breast cancer is 245 pages)
There is an index page at the beginning with hyperlinks to different sections of the guidelines – particularly helpful if you are looking for something specific
There are many pages of what I’ll call treatment trees where “if this, then that” questions are addressed in a series of text and arrows that can be overwhelming (but are also referenced which can be super helpful)
The meat of the guidelines is in the discussion which is particularly helpful if you need to step back and understand how a patient flows through diagnosis, staging, treatment, assessment, follow-up, etc
Quick Tip: Use “Ctrl + F” and type in “MS-1” to fast track you right to the discussion section!
The guidelines are updated often and have their version numbers at the top of each page (Version 4.2021, for example)
You may notice some discussion sections have a watermark indicating that section is being updated so take that into account as there may be newer evidence actively being reviewed
Recommendations have categories which are defined below in the table
If you do not see a category listed, that means it is 2A – this is always the default category unless otherwise stated
Despite these categories, NCCN advocates for clinical trials as the best management for any patient with cancer
There is an NCCN app for Android and Apple but no guarantees on how long you can look at them on a small device!
ASCO is a professional organization founded in 1964 whose mission is to conquer cancer through research, education, and promotion of the highest quality patient care.
If you’re interested in seeing the progression of cancer treatments, they have a cool timeline that goes as far back as 1846!
ASCO’s guidelines are developed by multidisciplinary panels of experts, including patient advocates, and are listed by the clinical areas listed below (some are more sparse than others). In each area, there is a left-sided column that contains all pertinent guidelines, with the most recent at the top. After selecting one, you have many options to review the information (depending on the clinical area) which may include downloading the PDF, slides, a summary of recommendations, a flowchart, patient information, podcasts (see link above), a pocket guide (not free), a visual abstract, and any related content such as ASCO Daily News Articles. Here are the guideline categories they publish:
Resource-Stratified – these ones are unique and outline appropriate methods of treatment and care based on the level of healthcare resources available in a given country, region, or practice area
MASCC (Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer) is a non-profit organization founded in 1990 that is dedicated to research and education in supportive care.
MASCC has a list of oncology practice resources that include:
Guidelines – includes antiemetics, mucositis, and medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (you can access for free by providing your email address)
Assessment Tools – includes antiemesis tool, oral agent teaching tool, and EGFR inhibitor skin toxicity tool
Clinical Apps – includes the antiemesis tool app and the Calculate by QxMD tool (app and online versions and includes many disease states outside of oncology)
Pain Management Center – includes a list of pain guidelines/position statements and pain/palliative care articles
Workshops and other resources also included on the resource page
ESMO (European Society of Medical Oncology) is a professional organization founded in 1975 with more than 25,000 members in 150 countries.
ESMO has various guidelines in these categories:
ESMO has created a working group around what they call “MCBS (Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale)”. This is a scale used to rank the magnitude of clinically meaningful benefit that can be expected from anti-cancer treatments. They highlight this is a dynamic tool that regularly undergoes revision but it’s worth reviewing and the website allows you to search by drug, tumor, or score. This podcast episode explains the history behind this endeavor. ASCO has a related framework, Net Health Benefit, that is described by Schnipper and colleagues; however, it doesn’t seem to be as user-friendly as the MCBS.
There is an ESMO Guidelines app for Android, Apple and a desktop app
SITC (Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer) is an organization dedicated to improving cancer patient outcomes by advancing the science and application of cancer immunotherapy.
Their guideline page has many publications on the use of immunotherapy in a variety of diseases.
ASTCT (American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy) is a professional organization dedicated to improving the application and success of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and cellular therapies. As a smaller organization compared to those above, their resources are fewer; however, if you manage patients who have or will undergo HCT or cellular therapy, I strongly encourage you to consider a membership with ASTCT. This was my professional home for many years when I worked in this specialty, and as a pharmacist, access to their very active listserv is well worth the annual dues.
ASTCT Guidelines page includes literature resources on cellular therapy, general clinical practice, infection, and operations.
Other useful content includes the CAR-T Slide Deck (292 slides of this complex therapy 😳) and the NIH Chronic GVHD Consensus Project.
The European counterpart of ASTCT is EBMT (European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation).
COG (Children’s Oncology Group) is an NCI-supported clinical trials group devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research.
Most of their resources are for members; however, they do have a supportive care guidelines page for non-members which includes these guidelines:
Chemotherapy-induced Nausea and Vomiting
There are 2 implementation tools to assist on this topic: an algorithm and an assessment tool
Oncology Patient Education Resources
Patient education was one of my favorite activities when I was in clinical practice. Everyone has limited time in their day so having quick access to accurate and effective patient resources is a must-have. Here are some options to evaluate for your own practice:
Chemocare is a service out of Cleveland Clinic that has patient-friendly information about chemotherapy, regimens, managing adverse effects, and a host of other resources
Oral Chemotherapy Education is a collaboration between NCODA (National Community Oncology Dispensing Association), ONS (Oncology Nursing Society), ACCC, and HOPA (Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association) to provide free access to patient appropriate educational information on oral chemotherapy
You can search by generic or branded drug name and each medication gives you additional resources such as links to the product website, prescribing information, and financial resources/access information
You can also add your own additional instructions at the bottom of the document to customize it to your patient
They also now have an IV version!
ChemoExperts is a very useful resource created by oncology pharmacists that has:
Treatment regimens which include acronym definitions, goals of therapy, schedule, side effects, monitoring, tips, patient assistance/copay coverage, and references
Disease information, including blood disorders
And my favorite, an editable treatment calendar
NCCN Guidelines for Patients has many educational booklets for patients (in several languages), videos, and payment assistance information (find it by selecting “NCCN Guidelines” on home page and then “NCCN Guidelines for Patients”)
ASCO has patient education materials where you can download guides to cancer, survivorship, caregiving, and other topics
ASCO’s Cancer.net website is also a fantastic resource. You can search by cancer type and review a lot of background information, including a great section about questions patients should ask their health care team.
ESMO has patient education guides in many diseases and supportive care topics and they can be accessed in many languages
COG has a patients and families resource page with several different pages, including one on coping with cancer
Oncology Clinical Information
Clinical Care Options has become a favorite of mine. They have a variety of media to help you understand oncology topics better, including video, podcasts, slidedecks, interactive tools, cases, downloadable tables, and clinical thoughts that bring in the clinician’s voice. Additionally, they offer ACPE-accredited programming.
Research To Practice has a lot of content separated by tumor type including video, audio, and slides – FYI, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds with all this content!
Cancer Therapy Advisor is a free resource whose mission is to provide practice-focused clinical and drug information that is reflective of current and emerging principles of care that will help inform oncology decisions. There is a lot of content on their site but I have found the treatment regimens to be the most useful.
OBR Video Center and Helio Video Portal contain videos from clinicians discussing clinical trial results, drugs, and other insights into their oncology practices.
The Hemonc wiki page is a free resource of interventions, regimens, and general information for hematology and oncology.
If you manage patients on immunotherapy, the IO TOX mobile application (on Google Play and Apple) will likely be very helpful. You can browse by toxicity and learn about the work up, CTCAE grading, and how to manage the toxicity.
MOSST (Multi-professional Oncology Safety Simulation and Training) is a unique training program sponsored by multiple organizations (and it’s free!). You have to apply for this program in teams of nurses and pharmacists for the interdisciplinary simulations. It appears focused on operational aspects of chemotherapy administration, but the course details indicate management of oncologic emergencies and oral oncolytics will be discussed.
Oncology Organizations
Can you believe there are over 100 oncology organizations worldwide! There are several specific to pharmacists including HOPA, BOPA, CAPhO, COPA, ESOP, ISOPP, and NCODA.
HOPA has helpful resources that cover a wide range of topics. Some that are particularly useful in my opinion are:
Guidelines, Standards, and Summaries – this includes the scope of hematology/oncology pharmacy practice, a dose rounding position statement, oral chemotherapy resources, and more
Summaries of Allied Organization Meetings which is a great way to stay up to date on scientific meetings pertinent to oncology pharmacy practice
NCODA has created clinical guidance documents called PQIs (Positive Quality Interventions) that range from adverse effect management to drug class overviews and many topics in between!
Oncology Continuing Education
If you are a member of ASCO, you have access to their eLearning platform that has many courses (including ACPE-accredited ones), and some are taught by pharmacists!
NCCN offers many education events and programs on various topics throughout the year (from their home page, select “Educational Events & Programs”).
HOPA and Medscape have partnered to produce pharmacy-specific CE programming (you do have to sign up for a free account to access).
ESMO’s OncologyPRO has a variety of recorded oncology lectures.
ACCC has several online courses that cover a variety of malignancies and other topics such as healthcare delivery.
CE Synergy hosts ACPE-accredited enduring content from several excellent pharmacists conferences including COG and ASTCT.
Prime Oncology has hematology and oncology content in a variety of categories such as expert review, webcasts, virtual posters, and others.
Other Useful Resources
American Cancer Society has a Treatment Center Directories and Resources page to help you find a particular facility.
The Michigan Oncology Quality Consortium (MOQC) has a fantastic resource page with a wide variety of topics ranging from sexual and gender minorities to herbal supplements.
Drugs@FDA is helpful to search for drug approval documentation (package inserts, letters, labels, reviews).
This FDA page lists all the hematology/oncology approvals and safety notifications by year.
Companion diagnostics are becoming commonplace. The FDA publishes a list of cleared or approved companion diagnostic devices with each device name associated to the drugs it is used with.
The NIOSH list of hazardous drugs in healthcare settings was published in 2016 but their website is updated with new information as it becomes available.
If you are involved in a Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee, you might find the ASHP Formulary Submission Resource Center helpful.
The NIH publishes the CTCAE (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events) which is a giant document used to grade adverse events.
CPIC (Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium) is a great resource for pharmacogenetic information which is being used with increasing frequency, including in patients with cancer.
The FDA published a pharmacogenetic table that includes associations they consider to have sufficiently strong evidence. This is an initial version and they have an open docket for comments.
The FDA has a Biomarkers in Drug Labeling page that lists out all drugs that include biomarkers in their package insert. It includes all diseases, but you could download the table and filter by oncology for a clean look at it.
The National Cancer Institute maintains a list of all drugs FDA-approved by cancer type - it’s a really great way to quickly see all drugs approved for leukemia, lung cancer, etc. Additionally, they have a list of drugs approved for conditions related to cancer (cardiac toxicity, hypercalcemia, etc).
About The Author
Kelley is a board-certified oncology pharmacist that strongly believes oncology is the best specialty for pharmacists and that anyone can learn it. She founded the ELO (Enjoy Learning Oncology) Program, the only private member network exclusively for oncology pharmacists. Want to get instruction and personalized support to take your oncology knowledge and career to the next level?
