Mission

The Commission on Cancer (CoC) is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for cancer patients through standard-setting, prevention, research, education, and the monitoring of comprehensive quality care.

History

Established by the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) in 1922, the multidisciplinary CoC establishes standards to ensure quality, multidisciplinary, and comprehensive cancer care delivery in health care settings; conducts surveys in health care settings to assess compliance with those standards; collects standardized data from CoC-accredited health care settings to measure cancer care quality; uses data to monitor treatment patterns and outcomes and enhance cancer control and clinical surveillance activities, and develops effective educational interventions to improve cancer prevention, early detection, cancer care delivery, and outcomes in health care settings.

Membership

Multidisciplinary membership is comprised of 97 individuals who are either surgeons representing the American College of Surgeons or representatives from the 42 national, professional organizations affiliated with the CoC. These individuals each participate in one of the standing committees or in one of the thirteen Disease Site Teams that work to pursue the Commission's goals by:

• Establishing standards for 1,433 Commission-Accredited Cancer Programs and evaluating and accrediting programs according to those standards.
• Overseeing a nationwide network of more than 1,600 physician-volunteers who provide state and local support for Commission and American Cancer Society cancer control initiatives.
• Providing oversight and coordination for educational programs of the Commission which are geared towards surgeons, physicians, cancer registrars, cancer program administrators, and others.
• Providing clinical oversight and expertise for Commission standard-setting activities and for the development, review, and dissemination of patient care guidelines.
• Overseeing and coordinating national site-specific studies of patterns of care and outcomes of patient management through the annual collection, analysis, and dissemination of data for all cancer sites.

Revised June 1, 2009

Commission on Cancer

ACoS Patient Education