Randall Kimple, Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UR Medicine and Wilmot Cancer Institute, shared on LinkedIn:
“One of the most important meetings in cancer care never makes a headline. It’s called a tumor board.
Every week at Wilmot Cancer Institute, and at hundreds of cancer centers around the country, specialists who could easily spend their careers in separate buildings sit down at the same table: surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, nurses, and trial coordinators.
They review one patient’s case at a time – the imaging, the pathology, the options – and debate, sometimes vigorously, what the best plan is for that specific person.
What strikes me about these conferences is the humility built into them.
No single specialty owns the answer. A surgeon may argue for radiation. A radiation oncologist may recommend surgery.
The question is never
‘what can my specialty offer ? ‘ but ‘what does this patient need ? ‘
Patients rarely see this meeting, but they feel its result: a plan shaped by many experts rather than one opinion.
In my first months here, watching these discussions has been one of the clearest windows into how seriously this team takes getting it right.
To the colleagues across Wilmot and UR Medicine who show up to that table every week, prepared and ready to be challenged: thank you.
This is what team-based cancer care looks like.”
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