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Medical oncologists’ perspectives of the Veterans Affairs National Precision Oncology Program
BACKGROUND: To support the rising need for testing and to standardize tumor DNA sequencing practices within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the National Precision Oncology Program (NPOP) was launched in 2016. We sought to assess oncologists’ pract...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7380614/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32706774 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235861 |
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author | Vashistha, Vishal Poonnen, Pradeep J. Snowdon, Jane L. Skinner, Halcyon G. McCaffrey, Victoria Spector, Neil L. Hintze, Bradley Duffy, Jill E. Weeraratne, Dilhan Jackson, Gretchen P. Kelley, Michael J. Patel, Vimla L. |
author_facet | Vashistha, Vishal Poonnen, Pradeep J. Snowdon, Jane L. Skinner, Halcyon G. McCaffrey, Victoria Spector, Neil L. Hintze, Bradley Duffy, Jill E. Weeraratne, Dilhan Jackson, Gretchen P. Kelley, Michael J. Patel, Vimla L. |
author_sort | Vashistha, Vishal |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: To support the rising need for testing and to standardize tumor DNA sequencing practices within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the National Precision Oncology Program (NPOP) was launched in 2016. We sought to assess oncologists’ practices, concerns, and perceptions regarding Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and the NPOP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a purposive total sampling approach, oncologists who had previously ordered NGS for at least one tumor sample through the NPOP were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Questions assessed the following: expectations for the NPOP, procedural requirements, applicability of testing results, and the summative utility of the NPOP. Interviews were assessed using an open coding approach. Thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate the completed codebook. Themes were defined deductively by reviewing the direct responses to interview questions as well as inductively by identifying emerging patterns of data. RESULTS: Of the 105 medical oncologists who were invited to participate, 20 (19%) were interviewed from 19 different VA medical centers in 14 states. Five recurrent themes were observed: (1) Educational Efforts Regarding Tumor DNA Sequencing Should be Undertaken, (2) Pathology Departments Share a Critical Role in Facilitating Test Completion, (3) Tumor DNA Sequencing via NGS Serves as the Most Comprehensive Testing Modality within Precision Oncology, (4) The Availability of the NPOP Has Expanded Options for Select Patients, and (5) The Completion of Tumor DNA Sequencing through the NPOP Could Help Improve Research Efforts within VHA Oncology Practices. CONCLUSION: Medical oncologists believe that the availability of tumor DNA sequencing through the NPOP could potentially lead to an improvement in outcomes for veterans with metastatic solid tumors. Efforts should be directed toward improving oncologists’ understanding of sequencing, strengthening collaborative relationships between oncologists and pathologists, and assessing the role of comprehensive NGS panels within the battery of precision tests. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7380614 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-73806142020-07-27 Medical oncologists’ perspectives of the Veterans Affairs National Precision Oncology Program Vashistha, Vishal Poonnen, Pradeep J. Snowdon, Jane L. Skinner, Halcyon G. McCaffrey, Victoria Spector, Neil L. Hintze, Bradley Duffy, Jill E. Weeraratne, Dilhan Jackson, Gretchen P. Kelley, Michael J. Patel, Vimla L. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: To support the rising need for testing and to standardize tumor DNA sequencing practices within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the National Precision Oncology Program (NPOP) was launched in 2016. We sought to assess oncologists’ practices, concerns, and perceptions regarding Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and the NPOP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a purposive total sampling approach, oncologists who had previously ordered NGS for at least one tumor sample through the NPOP were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Questions assessed the following: expectations for the NPOP, procedural requirements, applicability of testing results, and the summative utility of the NPOP. Interviews were assessed using an open coding approach. Thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate the completed codebook. Themes were defined deductively by reviewing the direct responses to interview questions as well as inductively by identifying emerging patterns of data. RESULTS: Of the 105 medical oncologists who were invited to participate, 20 (19%) were interviewed from 19 different VA medical centers in 14 states. Five recurrent themes were observed: (1) Educational Efforts Regarding Tumor DNA Sequencing Should be Undertaken, (2) Pathology Departments Share a Critical Role in Facilitating Test Completion, (3) Tumor DNA Sequencing via NGS Serves as the Most Comprehensive Testing Modality within Precision Oncology, (4) The Availability of the NPOP Has Expanded Options for Select Patients, and (5) The Completion of Tumor DNA Sequencing through the NPOP Could Help Improve Research Efforts within VHA Oncology Practices. CONCLUSION: Medical oncologists believe that the availability of tumor DNA sequencing through the NPOP could potentially lead to an improvement in outcomes for veterans with metastatic solid tumors. Efforts should be directed toward improving oncologists’ understanding of sequencing, strengthening collaborative relationships between oncologists and pathologists, and assessing the role of comprehensive NGS panels within the battery of precision tests. Public Library of Science 2020-07-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7380614/ /pubmed/32706774 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235861 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Vashistha, Vishal Poonnen, Pradeep J. Snowdon, Jane L. Skinner, Halcyon G. McCaffrey, Victoria Spector, Neil L. Hintze, Bradley Duffy, Jill E. Weeraratne, Dilhan Jackson, Gretchen P. Kelley, Michael J. Patel, Vimla L. Medical oncologists’ perspectives of the Veterans Affairs National Precision Oncology Program |
title | Medical oncologists’ perspectives of the Veterans Affairs National Precision Oncology Program |
title_full | Medical oncologists’ perspectives of the Veterans Affairs National Precision Oncology Program |
title_fullStr | Medical oncologists’ perspectives of the Veterans Affairs National Precision Oncology Program |
title_full_unstemmed | Medical oncologists’ perspectives of the Veterans Affairs National Precision Oncology Program |
title_short | Medical oncologists’ perspectives of the Veterans Affairs National Precision Oncology Program |
title_sort | medical oncologists’ perspectives of the veterans affairs national precision oncology program |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7380614/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32706774 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235861 |
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