Fusing quality improvement and education frameworks to reduce delays in tumor genotyping at community cancer centers.

Abstract

e23238 Background: Delays in obtaining tumor genotyping results hinder the ability of community-based oncologists to develop timely and effective treatment plans for patients with metastatic colorectal cancers (mCRC).Based on these identified challenges, a quality improvement educational intervention was developed to improve genotyping workflows and enhance clinicians' ability to incorporate timely biomarker testing results into treatment planning for patients with mCRC. Methods: Educational workshops were conducted at five US community cancer centers to address delays in tumor genotyping and their impact on treatment planning. These workshops aimed to enhance clinician knowledge and practice strategies for molecular testing protocols and treatment planning. Physician champions at each center facilitated learner engagement, encouraged multidisciplinary collaboration, and promoted institutional change by driving discussions tailored to their centers' specific challenges and baseline performance metrics. To date, pre- and post-intervention data have been collected from a mix of tumor board captured-metrics and case data compiled in spreadsheets. Baseline and follow-up analyses of patient cases (pre N = 96, post N = 62) evaluated changes in molecular testing rates enabling insights into the effectiveness of the intervention. Results: 90 clinicians participated in the educational workshops, collection of case data is ongoing. Results collected thus far show an overall average reduction of 20.6 days for tumor genotyping results being ready (51.7 days pre vs 31.1 days post). Physician champions report increased consistency in ordering molecular profiling earlier after the education. However, unresolved challenges remain, including insufficient tissue sampling that delay genotyping results as well as the initiation of chemotherapy while awaiting results, which may limit the immediate use of targeted therapies. Conclusions: Cases collected to date suggest that targeted educational workshops addressing genotyping delays for mCRC at community cancer centers can drive measurable improvements in molecular testing workflows and reduce time to results. These changes highlight the potential of such interventions to enhance treatment planning timelines in order to optimize therapeutic decision-making. However, persistent barriers limiting further reductions in treatment initiation time underscore the need for continued efforts to address systemic challenges.