Dr. Amawi Installed as President One of the highlights of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Kansas Chapter, American College of Surgeons was the installation of Mohammad Amawi, MD FACS as President of the Chapter. Dr. Amawi is a general surgeon practicing in Dodge City. Michael Davoren, MD was chosen by the membership to become President-Elect of the Chapter. Dr. Davoren's general surgery practice is located in Olathe. Surgical CME Opportunity The 2010 Annual Meeting of the Kansas Chapter of the ACS will be September 11-12, 2010 at the Wichita Airport Hilton Inn Wichita,Kansas. Topics will be designed to meet the continuing education needs of surgical specialists. All surgeons are invited to attend and participate in the continuing medical education program. Commission on Cancer State Chair Report There are 11 CoC affiliated cancer programs in Kansas. The Commission on Cancer has established goals for these cancer programs. Increased emphasis has been placed upon quality measures, including the use of adjuvant chemotherapy for T3 colon cancers, and the use of preoperative chemotheraby and radiation therapy for T3 and node + T2 rectal cancers. Breast cancer quality initiatives include the use of core needle biopsies as opposed to open biopsies whenever possible in the diagnosis and initial workup of breast pathology, as well as the offering of aromatase inhibitors in ER/PR+ breast cancer. The CoC is encouraging the voluntary submission of case volumes and numbers of cases treated(FIPS level II data) to the Natiional Cancer Database. Increased emphasis is also placed on enrollment of patients in clinical trials. Quality data are tracked with reports available to Cancer Liaison physicians (CLP's), including comparative measures such as the number of lymph nodes removed during colon resection. This year, comparative survial data by stage at diagnosis are also available for benchmarking and quality improvement purposes. As state chair, I am currently serving as the chair of the Professional Education Committee of the Kansas Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan, and have worked closely through monthly meetings with the Kansas Department of health and Environment in this role. I have attended the State Chair meeting in chicago in May, and the annual meeting of the CoC at the Clinical Congress during each of the last three years. I am currently a board member of the Great Plains division of the American Cancer Society, and just completed a two-year term as the state chair for the ACSCan, the lobbying arm of the American Cancer Society. I have actively testified before numerous House and Senate committees on issues relating to cancer, including comprehensive clean air (secondhand smoke) legislation and radon abatement legislation. I have personally called and contacted every CLP in Kansas each year, and have arranged meetings annually whenever possible. We communicate through regular e-mails. Annual meetings are more difficult as surgeons are often unable to get away from busy schedules and the demands of surgical practice in the face of declining reimbursement. As goals for the CoC approved programs in Kansas, I would encourage every program to have submitted FIPS level II data, to participate in clinical trials, to involve the American Cancer Society in the activities of the hospital cancer committee, to participate in the Kansas Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan through attendance and membership in committees, and to become politically involved in the legislative arena to reduce the burden of cancer for all Kansans James J Hamilton, Jr, MD FACS Kansas State Chair