Nationwide outcome registrations to improve quality of care in rectal surgery. An initiative of the European society of surgical oncology

Abstract

In recent years there have been significant improvements in rectal cancer treatment. New surgical techniques as well as effective neoadjuvant treatment regimens have contributed to these improvements. Key is to spread these advances towards every rectal cancer patient and to ensure that not only patients who are treated within the framework of clinical trials may benefit from these advancements. Throughout Europe there have been interesting quality programmes that have proved to facilitate the spread of up to date knowledge and skills among medical professionals resulting in improved treatment outcome. Despite these laudable efforts there is still a wide variation in treatment outcome between countries, regions and institutions, which calls for a European audit on cancer treatment outcome.

Nonelective Colon Cancer Resections in Elderly Patients: Results from the Dutch Surgical Colorectal Audit

“…However, although Ghaferi et al [12] have shown that voluntary reporting does not necessarily lead to selection bias, we cannot exclude that a selection bias caused by hospitals not registering all patients may have occurred. However, comparisons with the Netherlands Cancer Registry showed no evidence of selection bias and an overall estimated completeness of the dataset of 93% (www.dsca.nl), which is similar to the Scandinavian audits, and high compared to the National Bowel Cancer Audit Programme in the UK (completeness 68%) and the Belgium Project on Cancer of the Rectum (40%) [13]. It is unlikely that the remaining 7% of all patients would change our results to a great extent.…”

Quality Management and Key Performance Indicators in Oncologic Esophageal Surgery

“…Evidence-based benchmarking for the above parameters or a national expanded quality assurance program for a comprehensive evaluation of quality dimensions of hospitals treating patients with esophageal carcinoma, analogous, for example, to the nationwide registration of outcome data for the improvement in quality of care for rectal surgery-an initiative of the European Society for Surgical Oncology (ESSO)-is currently not in existence [65].…”

Toxicity and complications of preoperative chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced rectal cancer

“…These days, surgical complications are, amongst others, increasingly becoming healthcare quality outcome parameters 23 . To ensure uniform documentation and enable interinstitutional comparison, strict definition of complications is required.…”