The mission of VCGP is to improve care for animals with cancer through standardization of tumor evaluation and reporting.
Standardize parameters used to assess tumors
- Create guidelines (e.g., mitotic count, margins, etc.) to create a standard method for assessing tumors
- Provide a forum for diagnostic pathologists, oncologists, surgeons and others to comment and suggest improvements to these parameters
Assist in the development and validation of tumor assessment
- Establish standard protocols for investigators to ensure tumor grading systems include comprehensive data sets for assessment of prognostic utility
- Encourage studies to replicate (reproduce) existing prognostic parameters (including grading systems) in new patient data sets and in multiple laboratories
- Develop new methodologies and compare new methods to standard methods (new patient data sets and implementation in multiple laboratories)
- Assess inter-observer variability in the assessment of tumor parameters
Develop a system of synoptic tumor reporting for potentially aggressive tumor
types
- Develop tools to enable pathologists to use synoptic reports
- Propose synoptic reports for specific tumor types
Provide an international educational resource for pathologists and
investigators
- Website, webinars, journal manuscripts, letters to editors
- Create a curated image bank for parameters described in protocols (e.g., MF, AMF, MLF, CPATH, LVI, Necrosis)
- Provide tutorials on parameter standardization (e.g. for mitotic figures and lymphovascular invasion)
- Create and distribute videos demonstrating proper techniques (e.g. for margin identification/inking)
- Provide quizzes for self-evaluation
Promote the use of Guidelines and Protocols by Journal editors and reviewers
as minimum acceptance criteria for published manuscripts
- Create checklists to ensure standard methods and terminology are used
- Require a pathologist review of pathology data derived from case records. Recommend a pathologist to co-author, if one is needed
Establish a veterinary cancer biobank
- Enhance resource sharing for validation studies
- Serve as a resource for assessment of new technologies and validation of existing parameters
- Serve as an international educational resource for diagnostic pathologists and investigators