Abstract PS9-64: Impact of online education regarding novel HER2 therapies on translating evidence to practice
Authors: Kinjal Parikh, Nabil Dorkhom, Pan Chen, Davecia Ragoonath Cameron, Richard Caraico, Kelly Hanley, Shanu Modi
Journal: Cancer Research (2021)

Abstract Background:The treatment armamentarium for patients with refractory metastatic HER2+ breast cancer was limited due to a lack of effective agents after the use of ado-trastuzumab emtansine, trastuzumab, and pertuzumab. Novel therapies such as trastuzumab deruxtecan and tucatinib provided high response rates to a patient subgroup with unmet clinical needs for having effective therapy. As data from clinical trials become available, landmark trials are published, and FDA approvals and guidelines incorporate novel therapies, continuing medical education (CME) for oncologists is necessary to facilitate the translation of evidence to their clinical practice. Methods: A series of 4 CME-certified activities were launched to educate physicians on new therapies in metastatic HER2+ breast cancer following data releases from the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Education followed adult learning principles starting with a goal of increasing awareness on novel agents and outcomes presented at national conferences and then integrating these agents into clinical practice, including adverse event management. Panel discussions were utilized to provide multiple faculty perspectives and clinical examples. Effectiveness was analyzed using 3 multiple-choice and 1 self-efficacy question measuring knowledge, competence, and confidence, presented as pre-/post-CME repeated pairs for each of the activities. Oncologists who completed both the pre- and post-CME questions were included in analysis and McNemar’s tests were conducted to assess statistical significance of the results with p &amp;lt; .05 being considered significant. The CME activities launched from December 2019 through March 2020 and data collected June 2020. Results:As of 6/9/2020, 6,473 global physicians had participated in the activities including 3,036 oncologists. 62% of the Oncologists identified themselves as practicing in a community setting, with 87% reporting a plan to make changes to their practice. Analyses from the activities found significant improvements in knowledge, competence, and confidence, measured as relative changes in % of correct responses or % of confident physicians from pre- to post-CME, across the various themes of learning objectives in metastatic HER2+ breast cancer:• 62% increase in knowledge of clinical trial outcomes (n = 339; pre: 53% vs. post: 86%, p &amp;lt; .001)•35% increase in understanding the mechanism or rationale for novel agents (n = 368; pre: 52% vs. post: 70%, p &amp;lt; .001) •15% increase in the ability to identify patients eligible for novel therapies (n = 210; pre: 61% vs. post: 70%, p &amp;lt; .05) •38% increase in managing adverse events of novel therapies (n = 158; pre: 37% vs. post: 51%, p &amp;lt; .001) •83% increase in the percent of oncologists who were mostly or very confident in treating metastatic HER2+ breast cancer patients (n = 368; pre: 18% vs. post: 33%, p &amp;lt; .001) Conclusions: This series of online, expert-led, CME-certified educational activities resulted in significant improvement in knowledge, competence, and confidence among learners regarding the use of novel anti-HER2 therapies in the management of metastatic breast cancer. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of on-demand education to translate information from data to clinical practice and directly benefit patients. Grantors:This educational initiative was supported through educational grants from Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals LP and Daiichi Sankyo. Citation Format: Kinjal Parikh, Nabil Dorkhom, Pan Chen, Davecia Ragoonath Cameron, Richard Caraico, Kelly Hanley, Shanu Modi. Impact of online education regarding novel HER2 therapies on translating evidence to practice [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PS9-64.