Patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer diagnosed and managed at a single institution over a one-year period were identified. Those whose case had been discussed at a multidisciplinary meeting had better survival than those whose case was not discussed (mean survival; 280 days vs. 205 days, log-rank P = 0.048).The management of patients with cancer is complex. Formal multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings have been widely promoted to improve coordination, communication and decision making in cancer management.
The abstract to publication ratio (APR) is a measure of the quality of scientific meetings. The aim of the present study was to determine the publication rate of abstracts presented at annual Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) conferences, and to identify the publishing journals. All free paper research abstracts (oral or poster) presented by RANZCR radiologists, radiation oncologists and trainees at the four consecutive meetings between 1996 and 1999 were identified retrospectively from conference programmes. The PubMed database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/) was searched to determine whether or not the abstract had been published as a full paper. Of the 480 free paper research abstracts, 168 (35%) had been published as full articles. The overall abstract to publication ratio for radiology was 29% and for radiation oncology was 41%. Papers were published in a variety of journals but Australasian Radiology accounted for 27%. The mean time between presentation and publication was 16.5 months (median 17 months). These overall abstract to publication ratios are lower than those reported for overseas-based meetings in each respective area. Guidelines to scientific committees could increase the APR by more rigorous selection of abstracts. Future research should look at barriers to the publication of research findings, and identify ways to assist the publication process.
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