Oesophago-gastric (stomach) cancer

The Oesophago-gastric (stomach) Cancer audit aims to examine the quality of care given to patients and thereby help services to improve. The audit evaluates the process of care and the outcomes of treatment for all O-G cancer patients, both curative and palliative.

Description

Survival depends on early diagnosis through appropriate investigations, use of complicated surgical techniques and input from a range of professionals. The management of patients with this type of cancer is complex and requires multidisciplinary working.

There is a lack of information linking treatment details to outcomes about patients' views of their care and quality of life following treatment and about the timescales of the overall process of care from referral onwards.

Aims of the audit

• measure the characteristics of patients and their cancers, and how this relates to treatment selection
• describe the patterns of care received by curative and palliative patients
• measure the short term outcomes of both curative and palliative treatments, and identify their determinants
• determine the survival rates of patients, and access whether differences in survival can be explained by patient characteristics, cancer type and the treatments received
• measure patient quality of life and satisfaction with care in a selected number of hospitals

Organisation of the audit

These key organisations are working in collaboration to provide an effective and timely audit with broad support and endorsement from throughout the clinical and patient community.

• The Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons
• The Clinical Effectiveness Unit (CEU) of The Royal College of Surgeons
• The British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG)
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

The National Clinical Audit Support Programme (NCASP) of The Information Centre for health and social care provide the project management.

The National Clinical Audit Support Programme at the NHS Information Centre

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