More than 100 providers from several different specialties, nurses, pharmacists and research staff attended the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance Advanced Prostate Cancer Symposium hosted by the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute and the Tallwood Urology and Kidney Institute on April 12 at the Hartford Marriott Downtown.
The event brought together general urologists, urologic oncologists, radiation oncologists and medical oncologists to focus on best practice, evidence-based decision making in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. MSK Alliance members from Lehigh Valley Health System and the Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida joined the symposium remotely through video conferencing.
Dr. Philip Kantoff, Medical Oncologist and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, gave the keynote address, “Genomics and Personalized Treatment”, which focused on the emergence of DNA repair abnormalities and the resistance to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), also known as hormone therapy, in some prostate cancer patients.
Before the conference, attendees were invited to Hartford Hospital’s Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI) to remotely observe a live extended lymph node dissection performed by Dr. Joseph Wagner, Director of Robotic Surgery at Hartford Hospital moderated by Dr. Stuart Kesler.
“This symposium truly demonstrates the power of Hartford HealthCare and the MSK Cancer Alliance as we work collaboratively to bring the most innovative, evidence-based cancer care directly to our patients. In some cases, care that had never before been available in a community hospital setting,” said Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute Physician-in-Chief Dr. Peter Yu.
The event also included panel discussions moderated by Tallwood urologists Dr. Stuart Kessler and Dr. Anoop Meraney and Dr. Andrew Salner, Medical Director of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital.
Jan Ruderman, MBA, Vice President of the Tallwood Urology and Kidney Institute, said symposiums like this are just one tool for helping to bring the most innovative treatments to cancer patients.
“Our organizational structure—being connected to MSK and being organized around disease management teams where we talk about best practice, what’s new in the literature and what’s new in the research every week—gives us the ability to disseminate new treatments quickly,” Ruderman said. “In the past, it could take years before a treatment is available at a local community hospital. Now we can do it in a month.”
Panelists included:
Jeffrey Kamradt, MD, Medical Oncologist, Hartford Healthcare
Gary Tansino, MD, Medical Oncologist, Hartford Healthcare
Evan Fox, MD, Psychiatrist, Hartford Healthcare
Richard Gannon, Pharm D, Hartford Healthcare
Vincent Laudone, MD, Urologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering
Susan Slovin, MD, Medical Oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering
Michael Morris, MD, Medical Oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering
Sean McBride, MD, Radiation Oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering