The Educational NET Preceptorship
The Preceptorship is designed for NET physicians. It requires significant pre-work prior to an intensive face-to-face meeting. The content and learning approach prioritise participants, with seminal studies and MDT cases nominated by the participants themselves, ensuring relevance and engagement.
A significant and novel part of the course is composed of the ‘seminal papers’ sessions, where participants cover landmark clinical trials and seminal papers for the designated tumour type, including management of early and advanced disease, screening, multimodality management (surgery, liver directed therapy, targeted agents, chemotherapy, and supportive care).
Prior the Preceptorship
Applicants are required to complete the application form. Once notified that they have been accepted onto the program and advised which of the nominated papers they have been allocated to present, they proceed to develop their PowerPoint presentations based on strict adherence to the pre-specified format (exemplars and templates will be provided). Each presentation needs to cover trial design, results and implications on practice. All PowerPoint slides need to be sent to the designated Preceptors for feedback according to the pre-specified due date.
Once participants receive feedback, they should revise their work before uploading the final version of their PowerPoint presentations by the pre-specified date (approximately 2 weeks prior to the face-to-face meeting).
Clinical papers and presentations are kept in a dedicated sub-categorised Dropbox for review by all participants and preceptors prior to the Preceptorship day. This valuable resource is retained indefinitely.
Timelines will be provided to participants for the uploading of papers, uploading of presentations, feedback from preceptors, and finalisation of presentations in due course.
During the Preceptorship
Participants do not know in advance who will give which presentation on the meeting day. After each paper is presented, the Convenor facilitates comments from the Preceptors on the paper, such as its clinical significance, trial critiques, practical application and placement of the paper in perspective to the overall NET treatment landscape.
After each major section (e.g. adjuvant therapy, neo-adjuvant therapy), the Preceptor facilitates a “pathway discussion” at their own table, clarifying the application of the trial data to day-to-day management and synthesising trial findings into current best evidence-based practice. There is also an “Ask the Expert” session for discussions as part of a Multidisciplinary team meeting.
Past Preceptorships
CommNETs successfully hosted three Preceptorships in the past. These learning events brought together clinicians in multiple regions of the globe to review seminal NET research and the evolution of NET clinical trials, discuss current best practice in NETs, and explore the potential for advances in neuroendocrine cancer care led by expert preceptors.
A total of 14 delegates from Canada, Australia and New Zealand attended the third Preceptorship hosted by CommNETs in December 2024.
Preceptors:
- Dr Simron Singh, Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Center, Toronto, Canada (Convenor)
- Dr David Chan, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (Committee)
- A/Prof Grace Kong, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
- Dr Rachel Goodwin, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Canada
A total of 12 delegates from Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Brazil attended the second Preceptorship hosted by CommNETs in November 2018.
Preceptors:
- Dr Simron Singh, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Canada (Convenor)
- Dr Tim Asmis, Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Canada (Committee)
- Dr David Chan, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia (Committee)
- Dr Rachel Riechelmann, A.C. Camargo Cancer Centre, Brazil
- Dr Tiago Felismino, A.C. Camargo Cancer Centre, Brazil
- Dr Juan O’Connor, Institute Alexander Fleming, Argentina
A total of 21 delegates from Singapore, China, South Africa, Thailand, Pakistan, Australia, Taiwan and Egypt attended the first Preceptorship hosted by CommNETs in November 2017.
Preceptors:
- Prof Eva Segelov, Monash University, Monash Health, Australia (Convenor)
- Dr Simron Singh, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Canada (Committee)
- Dr David Tai, National Cancer Centre, Singapore (Committee)
- Dr Tim Asmis, Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Canada
- Dr Chris Jackson, Dunedin Hospital, New Zealand
- Dr Calvin Law, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Canada
“I participated in the CommNETs Preceptorship on ‘Seminal advances in neuroendocrine tumour (NET)’ held in Singapore in November 2017. Through my participation I had the opportunity to learn about all the recent advances in this space. The format of the Preceptorship was fantastic with a very warm and friendly introduction session. All participants were required to deliver presentations on how the treatment of NET has advanced over the years – this was a key element of the learning process. On the second day we were split into smaller groups and had one subject specialist in each group. We discussed all possible presentations of NET and how to manage it. This made a great revision and helped us apply all the knowledge that we had learned the previous day.
The Preceptorship also gave me an opportunity to network. Following the Preceptorship I have emailed the Convenors for their opinion on NET cases and their timely and valuable input has been of great help in my patient care”.
Dr Zarka Samoon, Medical Oncologist
Aga Kham University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan
(now GI Cancer Trials Research Fellow located in Sydney, Australia)
“The organizers (CommNETs) organized a very special training course on NETs. At the Preceptorship, the attendees are both trainees and lecturers of others. We share our learning experiences and introduce our practical experience to others. Especially grateful, the organizers invited several mentors with both rich clinical experience and professional knowledge, who gave a wonderful review of each attendee’s presentations. I really appreciate the contribution they have made to this training session and looking forward to seeing everyone next time”.
Dr Wen-Quan Wang, MD, PhD
Department of Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary Surgery
Pancreatic Cancer Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
