by Tom Wilemon
Tuya Pal, MD, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and associate director for Cancer Health Disparities at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, has been named to two cancer research leadership posts.
She is the incoming editor-in-chief of the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Daily Query (PDQ) Cancer Genetics Editorial Board, a role that she will assume in 2021.
The PDQ cancer information summaries are peer-reviewed, evidence-based summaries freely available on the web and updated monthly by content experts from across the continent. It was established by the National Cancer Act of 1971 and is now mandated under the Public Health Service Act of 1996, published on Cancer.gov, and distributed to partner organizations worldwide. This is done through ongoing review and curation of new data through a national panel of content experts, with posting of regularly updated content available here.
“I’ve had the privilege of being on this board since board since 2008, during which time we have experienced tremendous growth, adding new cancer types and content on targeted treatments,” Pal said. “I am honored to have an active role in continuing to shape this resource, as the clinical relevance for identifying inherited cancers expands.”
Pal was also recently named vice chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Breast, Ovarian, and Pancreatic Panel. She has been a member of the panel for 11 years.
The panel provides recommendations for identification and care related to hereditary breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer syndromes. NCCN panels are comprised of multidisciplinary, disease-specific subspecialists across member institutions which encompass 30 leading cancer centers. Guidelines are revised at least annually through institutional review, based on new information to improve current clinical practice standards.
NCCN guidelines are recognized as the standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer care and are amongst the most thorough and frequently updated clinical practice guideline available in any area of medicine.
