P0001 - Pancreatic Cancer Continuing Education (PaC-CE) Project: Survey of Primary Care Providers (PCPs) on Diagnosis and Management of Patients With Pancreatic Cancer (PaC)

Shannon Coombs, BS¹, Suneela Vegunta, MD¹, Shradha Gupta, MD², Rahul Pannala, MD^3
1Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Scottsdale, AZ; ²Mayo Clinic, Chandler, AZ; ³Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ

Introduction: Though PaC is a relatively uncommon diagnosis in primary care practice, patients often depend on PCPs for several aspects of PaC care throughout their treatment. Continuing education (CE) on current diagnostic and treatment guidelines for PaC specifically tailored for PCPs can lead to improved overall care of patients but availability of such tailored programs is limited. We conducted a survey of practicing PCPs in the United States (US) to understand knowledge gaps regarding PaC to inform development of a PaC-CE program.

Methods: REDCAP questionnaire was developed with input from focus group of PCPs, subspecialists who manage PaC, and survey research professionals. Demographic information was collected along with participants’ responses to clinical case-based scenarios as a multiple-choice question format. Questions focused on topics involving surveillance, diagnosis, and management of PaC according to current guidelines. The survey was broadly circulated among academic centers and community practices by electronic mail. Descriptive analysis was performed using SAS. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Demographic and practice information of PCPs who returned a completed survey (n=102) is presented in table 1. Majority (78%) of PCPs evaluated £5 patients with pancreatic mass in the past year. PCPs reported being involved in ordering diagnostic testing (58%), managing non-pain adverse events of cancer-directed therapies (23%), pain management (20%) and palliative care discussions (33%). Majority of PCPs correctly identified diagnostic imaging and tissue sampling recommendations (94% and 69% respectively) and tumor markers (64%). Minority of PCPs correctly identified current median survival (36%), incidence of surgically resectable disease at presentation (27%), screening recommendations in high-risk individuals (23%) and patients with chronic pancreatitis (22%). PCPs in academic practices, compared to those at non-academic practices had a higher overall correct score for the questionnaire (5.8 vs. 4.6, respectively, p=0.006). Most PCPs reported conference lectures or web-based interactive cases as preferred learning channels.

Discussion: PCPs are involved in several aspects of care of patients with PaC. Our survey results suggest that PaC-CE programs should highlight improved median survival, surgical resection criteria, diagnostic role of endoscopic ultrasound, and screening guidelines among high-risk individuals.



Disclosures:


Shannon Coombs, BS¹, Suneela Vegunta, MD¹, Shradha Gupta, MD², Rahul Pannala, MD³. P0001 - Pancreatic Cancer Continuing Education (PaC-CE) Project: Survey of Primary Care Providers (PCPs) on Diagnosis and Management of Patients With Pancreatic Cancer (PaC), ACG 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Las Vegas, Nevada: American College of Gastroenterology.