• Christiane Thallinger, Peter Berzinec, Emina Bicakcic, Adelina Dan, Gabriella Fabian, Laurentia Nicoletta Gales, Cvetka Grasic Kuhar, Urska Janzic, Zsusanna Kahan, Marina Mencinger, George Penthedourakis, Joseph Sgouros, Luka Simetic, Daniela Sirbu, Milan Vosmik, Anna Wrona, and Christoph Zielinski.
• Central European Cooperative Oncology Group, Ohmanngasse 26, 1190, Vienna, Austria. christiane.thallinger@cancer-center.cc.
• Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 2022 Oct 1; 134 (19-20): 697-704.

PurposeTo establish a transborder virtual tumor board (VTB) fostering state-of-the-art management of cancer patients by exchanging knowledge and expertise among oncologists in Central and Southeastern Europe (CEE).MethodsWe established and implemented a VTB based on the WebEx platform. This allowed for password-protected and secure upload of patient cases to be presented and discussed among colleagues from various oncology centers scattered throughout CEE in order to arrive at a recommendation for further diagnoses and/or treatment.ResultsA total of 73 cases from 16 oncology centers located in 11 CEE countries were uploaded by 22 physicians; 71 were discussed over the course of 17 virtual meetings between June 2018 and May 2019 and 12 different kinds of malignant diseases were discussed with lung cancer (46.6%), melanoma (19.2%) and bladder cancer (13.6%) being the most commonly presented tumor entities. Of the discussed patients, 93.3% had stage IV disease at the time of presentation, 62.6% received chemotherapy or targeted treatment and 67.1% were treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs). The most common causes for presentation and discussion of patient cases were related to the use of ICPIs (80%).ConclusionWhen the need for expertise exceeds locally available resources, web-based VTBs provide a feasible way to discuss patient cases and arrive at conclusions regarding diagnoses and/or treatment across large geographic distances. Moreover, VTBs provide an innovative way for proper, state-of-the-art management of patients with malignant diseases in times of social distancing and the resulting need for restricted interaction during the current SARS-CoV‑2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2) pandemic.© 2022. The Author(s).

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