SAN FRANCISCO — Laurie J. Kirstein, MD, FACS, a surgical oncologist from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) who specializes in the treatment of breast cancer, will begin a two-year term as the new chair of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Commission on Cancer (CoC).
The CoC, a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for patients with cancer, promotes cancer research and education through its programs and quality measures that set and raise standards of cancer care.
Dr. Kirstein was officially announced as the new chair on October 19 at the plenary session of the CoC at the ACS Clinical Congress 2024 in San Francisco, California. She succeeds cardiothoracic surgeon Timothy W. Mullett, MD, MBA, FACS, who has served as chair of the CoC since 2020. Daniel J. Boffa, MD, MBA, FACS, division chief of thoracic surgery at Yale School of Medicine, was announced as vice-chair.
In her role as chair of the CoC, Dr. Kirstein will serve as the spokesperson for oncology issues addressed by the organization, identify priorities for the CoC, and enhance the relationship between the CoC and its accredited programs. Two of her priorities are to extend the reach of the CoC, including at the international level, and to promote the value of CoC accreditation to all cancer centers nationwide.
“To expand the reach of the CoC, we can create pathways for programs in areas of the country that are not yet CoC accredited. Many of these programs lie in rural America but are also in traditionally underserved urban centers. Helping these programs establish standards for cancer patients will improve outcomes for their communities,” Dr. Kirstein said. “Likewise, we can also help our current CoC-accredited programs with overcoming barriers for their patients to obtain treatment and to ensure access to high-quality care.”
The CoC’s accreditation program encourages hospitals, treatment centers, and other facilities to improve the quality of patient care through various cancer-related services. The CoC maintains numerous reporting tools to aid cancer treatment and research facilities in benchmarking and improving patient outcomes. It also maintains the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), which tracks national trends and demographics of cancer diagnoses. Approximately 1,400 cancer programs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico are accredited by the CoC; these facilities diagnose and/or treat more than 74 percent of all newly diagnosed cancers in the United States. Through their participation in the CoC accreditation program, these facilities also become an ACS Surgical Quality Partner. Being a Surgical Quality Partner signifies an institution’s dedication to consistently improving procedures and approaches, while maintaining a critical eye on process at every step.
“We know that combining standards with adherence to quality measures, and the use of NCDB data to compare benchmarks, are some of the unique ways the CoC brings value to our programs and the communities they serve,” Dr. Kirstein said. “In addition, by facilitating collaboration with community partners and other organizations in the cancer space, I hope to broaden the footprint of the CoC across the cancer treatment continuum. Since my leadership philosophy focuses on inclusion, I’m hoping to engage both our programs and our membership in robust discussions as we continually improve our standards and what we do in the CoC.”
A Fellow of the ACS since 2010, Dr. Kirstein has held several leadership roles within the CoC, including chair of the Education Committee and chair of the Education Core for the ACS Cancer Programs, where she worked to identify and overcome gaps in cancer care for accredited programs. Most recently, she served as vice chair of the CoC Executive Committee and program chair of the ACS Cancer Conference, where she oversaw the curriculum of the Commission’s annual cancer conference. She also has led Breaking Barriers, a national quality improvement project for the CoC and the ACS National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers to identify and overcome reasons for missed radiation treatment appointments.
At MSK, Dr. Kirstein serves as a surgical site director for their Monmouth location in Middletown, New Jersey, and is their cancer liaison physician to the CoC. Prior to joining MSK, Dr. Kirstein was the Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship Director for the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
As a surgeon-researcher, Dr. Kirstein leads clinical trials examining non-opioid pathways to reduce acute and chronic pain after mastectomy and co-leads a study to assist cancer patients with smoking cessation. In addition, she received funding from the National Cancer Institute to create a web-based decision aid to educate patients with breast cancer about surgical options.
