Patients with pancreatic cancer can now see all their physicians and receive the results of tests on the same day in the same place with the recent opening of the multidisciplinary clinic at the Elkins Pancreas Center in the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
“Pancreatic cancer is a very complex disease. There are a lot of medical issues and decisions that come with the diagnosis,” said Dr. William E. Fisher, director of the Elkins Pancreas Center and associate professor of surgery at BCM. “Do you administer the chemotherapy and radiation first, then have surgery to remove the tumor, or do you have surgery first and then chemotherapy and radiation? Physicians who work as a group to treat these patients need to discuss, plan and work together in order to provide the best possible treatment for each individual patient.”
He said the new multidisciplinary clinic will enable physicians and patients to work together on care that is provided on a personalized basis.
Before the clinic’s opening, patients may have seen their medical, surgical and radiation oncologists on different days in different locations, Fisher said. Now, patients have access to all their physicians and tests in one day and are provided with information on their course of treatment.
“Patients come in the morning for their necessary tests and scans and come back in the afternoon when we tell them the course of treatment for which they are a candidate,” said Fisher. “This is extremely convenient for patients traveling to Houston to receive care.”
This speeds up the treatment plan and facilitates the rapid development of personalized treatment, Fisher said. Without this kind of coordinated effort, it could take weeks to get a plan of treatment together, he said.
“We have all gotten together in one clinic area. We’re meeting once a day in a conference to discuss our patients and go over the best course of management and treatment of the disease,” said Fisher. “When we all get together like this, it truly fosters multidisciplinary care and has a significant effect on patient care.”
Additionally, Fisher said, the collaboration of the physicians helps establish better research programs that will develop improved treatment for the disease.
“We discuss if we have available clinical research studies for all stages of the disease, which trials are best and if we have them all open here.”
“We have a robust basic science research team that is aggressively working on translating research into new treatments for pancreatic cancer,” said Fisher. “We are running multiple, cutting edge clinical trials, one of which I am very proud of because it is a classic example of personalized genomic medicine.”
The trial, Fisher said, involves biopsying the tumor to look for a specific gene mutation. Doctors then administer a vaccine against the mutated protein associated with that gene, said Fisher. This study has passed early phases and doctors are now trying to gauge how effective it is and for which patients it works best.
“We are very excited to have the resources to offer this to patients,” said Fisher. “We think it’s really an important tool in the fight against the disease.”
The Elkins Pancreas Center opened six years ago to provide optimal care to pancreatic cancer patients across the country, to lead the nation in the discovery of effective new methods to diagnose and treat the disease and to educate patients and their families, doctors and trainees and the public about pancreatic cancer.
The Center was named for the late James Elkins, Jr., a philanthropist and former chair of the BCM Board of Trustees.
For referrals to the Elkins Pancreas Center, call 1-877-PANC-CTR (1-877-726-2287.)
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