Melanoma Rates Soar Among Young Adults

A new study released in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings  has revealed an alarming rise in melanoma among people aged 18 to 39 over the past 40 years. Rates of this potentially deadly skin cancer grew by 800 percent among young women and 400 percent among young men. Researchers examined data on the 256 young adults in Olmstead County, MN, who were diagnosed with melanoma between 1970 and 2009. Between 1970 and 1979, just 16 new cases, or 4.8 cases per 100,000 people, were diagnosed. But in the decade ending December 31, 2009, 129 cases were recorded, an incidence rate of 30.8 cases per 100,000 people - an enormous jump from the 1970's.

 Patient Navigators Call Conference "Enlightening" and "Excellent!"

On Tuesday, April 17, 2012 over 150 Connecticut cancer professionals attended the Partnership's conference on patient navigation held at the Cromwell Crowne Plaza in Cromwell, CT. Attendees represented over 70 organizations across the state including 22 hospitals or cancer centers.

Renee Coleman-Mitchell, section chief of the Connecticut Department of Public Health's Health Education, Management and Surveillance Section welcomed all the attendees to the conference and lauded them for their eagerness to expand their knowledge.

Marion Morra, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Partnership introduced keynote speaker Rian Rodriguez, Director of Patient Navigation for the American Cancer Society. Mr. Rodriguez highlighted the history of patient navigation as created by Dr. Harold P. Freeman to reduce barriers to screening and care for minority women in Harlem. Navigation has evolved into many different program models, noted Rodriguez, but the true purpose was and always has been to eliminate the barriers to care. Participants noted that the presentation was not just informative, but also "clear, practical" "eloquent" and "organized". Mr. Rodriguez also shared a number of resources in his presentation, which have been made available on CA CONNecting. As a fitting conclusion to his presentation, Rian noted the new American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (ACOS CoC) standard requiring cancer centers to have a navigation program in place by 2015. Not only does this requirement validate the entire navigation process, but it also opens exciting doors of possibility for future program development.

Participants, invigorated by the keynote address, headed into concurrent breakout sessions for the remainder of the morning. Split into clinical and administrative audiences, attendees learned about the value of patient navigation programs from Pamela Vlahakis, RN, BSN, CBCN, Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center, New Jersey; or how to identify and remove barriers to care from Sharon Gentry, RN, MSN, Derrick L. Davis Forsyth Regional Cancer Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Both speakers were well received, with over 90% of their respective audiences rating the overall presentations as "very good" or "excellent."

During the buffet lunch attendees had a chance to learn more about the Partnership committees as co-chairs highlighted the implementation projects along with accomplishments and other initiatives the Partnership is currently involved with. "The lunch tables created a wonderful opportunity to engage a new audience, and generated quite a bit of interest in the Partnership," remarked Connecticut Cancer Partnership Director, Lucinda Hogarty.

Following lunch, participants split into two audiences once again, and attended the panel presentation on different models of navigation, or the session on integrating quality care throughout the cancer experience given by Dr. Joshua Hauser, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago. Participants in each session remarked on the quality of information presented, and the high caliber of speakers sharing their experiences, and knowledge.

Though the afternoon plenary session was packed with information and resources, it was very short on time. Dr. Kevin Fiscella of University of Rochester School of Medicine and Mandi Pratt-Chapman, Co-Director of the George Washington Cancer Institute Center for the Advancement of Cancer Survivorship, Navigation and Policy (caSNP) spoke to different measures that would enable the audience to measure the impact of Patient Navigation programs in their own institutions. This topic was of particular interest to many participants who are currently looking to expand their programs into new fields, such as survivorship, as well as new site-specific diagnosis areas.

Other comments from participants included.....

"I enjoyed the entire meeting; I am new to Navigation so I found this all very enlightening."

"Meeting was very diverse convened various experts and levels of complexity of the process and how it can fit in with existing programs."

"The knowledge and caliber of speakers was excellent."

"I loved hearing from speakers and colleagues all about their individual Navigation Programs, and how they came to be."

"The materials we received today will be exceptionally useful to us."

CEUs were provided to nurses and social workers by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The American Cancer Society provided materials and speakers from the National Home Office.