Section Newsletter
| (click the date below to access the newsletter) |
| December 2024 |
Town Hall
The Section held our first Town Hall in January of 2025. We plan to hold these twice a year to report on the work of the section and encourage our members to get involved. To watch the Town Hall held on January 15, 2025, please click the image below. Written minutes from the meeting appear below the recording. If you are interested in participating/contributing to any of the projects discussed, please contact Section Staff member jj Jackman or Section Chairs TJ Ow or Karen Choi.
AHNS Cutaneous Section Town Hall – Minutes from the Meeting
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Dr. TJ Ow (section chair) welcomed the section members and introduced the Section leadership:
Karen Choi – Vice-Chair
Alice Lin – Representative to the Curriculum Development & Maintenance Service
Jessica Yesensky – Prevention chair
Daniel Knott – Program chair
Kelly Malloy – Mentorship chair
Anne Kane – Education chair
David Neskey – Guidelines chair
Joe Curry – Research chair
Caitlin McMullen – Website & Social Media chair
Vivian Wu – Membership chair
Neil Gross – Scientific Program Liaison
Upcoming Events:
Spring is busy for the Section. May is our busiest month, as it is Skin Cancer Awareness Month. We host a Virtual Tumor Board session in May and another one in December. We also host an issue of the AHNS Journal Club in May as well as a series of blog and social media posts regarding skin cancer prevention. At this year’s COSM meeting we have two cutaneous-related panels and will hold a section meeting in person there.
Recruitment of new social media chair:
Caitlin McMullen has recently become the vice chair of the AHNS Website and Social Media Service, and will need to step down as the social media chair for this section. We are looking for someone to take up this mantle and will solicit nominations in the coming months. And HUGE thank yous to Caitlin for her incredible work in this position over the last several years!
NRG-HN014
Dr. Gross announced that NRG-HN014 is now activated – this is the Phase 3 trial testing neoadjuvant approach vs. standard of care for advanced resectable cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Sites can go on to CTSU and download the protocol and materials and start to submit to their local regulatory organizations. We’d love to have as many surgeons as possible be the site PIs – surgeon involvement is critical to the success of the trial. Any questions can be directed to [email protected].
Research – Joe Curry
Dr. Curry echoed the call for surgeons to participate in NRG-HN014 and summarized two projects currently being considered:
- A multi-institutional project to pool patients who have advanced skin cancers and have gotten immunotherapy in a setting of immunosuppression like CLL or other diseases.
- Looking at the possibility of developing an endpoint around response to therapy or adaptive surgical approaches…working with surgeons to develop a formalized endpoint that could be used during clinical trials.
We will solicit section members as we develop working groups for these projects, and section members with other research ideas are encouraged to share then Dr. Curry for consideration.
Guidelines – David Neskey
We want to make sure the data that is out there reflects what the common treatment modalities are for our patients. For cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, the data is very heterogenous and the studies aren’t great. One idea was to look at ensuring path reports are consistent and giving appropriate pathological findings within the given path report for a definitive surgical resection – delving into derms, med oncs and rad oncs who have an interest in cutaneous malignancies to develop a consensus.
Two additional ideas:
- The role of post-operative radiation in patients with high-risk completely resected cutaneous squamous cell – the last guideline was published in 2019, with an update from Europe in 2023, and questions still arise. Go into literature to ID any further updates.
- Role of elective neck dissection in the setting of a parotid positive malignancy
Education – Anne Kane
- Look for calls for articles in late March for our May Journal Club.
- We are also developing a podcast with the AHNS Young Members Service – “building a skin practice”
- In the fall we hope to put together a webinar from our section – Please contact JJ, TJ or Karen if you have a suggested topic for a webinar!
Mentorship – Kelly Malloy
Dr. Malloy is working to take stock of the current formal mentorship projects available to surgeons. We want to be thoughtful about the way we mentor, the way we sponsor. She would love to hear from members where they feel the untapped gaps are, as well as hearing your ideas and experiences in coaching.
Social Media – Caitlin McMullen
Dr. McMullen reiterated that we’re always looking for blog posts, and material to post. She reminded the group of the output we want to produce for May/Skin Cancer Awareness Month. We’ll want to put together infographics, blog posts, poll questions etc. for the month.
Membership – Vivian Wu
For these and other projects, Dr. Wu encouraged section members to talk with their non-surgeon colleagues – we would love to partner with dermatologists, pathologists, facial plastics, rad and med oncs – anyone with an interest in head & neck skin cancer.
We will hold an in-person Section meeting at COSM in May – details forthcoming.