The National Oesphago-Gastric Cancer, which aims to evaluate the quality of care received by patients with oesophago-gastric (OG) cancer in England and Wales, has published a short report on the use of evidence-based (EB) radiotherapy regimens, as recommended by the Royal College of Radiologists.
Based on data from patients diagnosed in England between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2019 and whose initial treatment plan was described as non-curative, the report found that there were 6,333 patients with oesophageal cancer and 1,305 patients with stomach cancer who had a record of palliative radiotherapy (of which 78.5% and 86.1% respectively were prescribed an evidence-based regimen). The report also found:
The likelihood of being prescribed an EB palliative radiotherapy regimen was not strongly associated with patient characteristics in general, with the notable exceptions of cancer stage for oesophageal cancer and the number of comorbidities for stomach cancer, and
There was significant variation in the rates of planned EB regimen use observed across the 21 regional Cancer Alliances. In seven Cancer Alliances, more than 90% of patients who had palliative radiotherapy had a planned EB palliative regimen, while in four Cancer Alliances, less than 70% had an EB regimen.
The report goes on to make a number of recommendations, including a call for an investigation into the reasons for the low use of evidence-based regimens for palliative radiotherapy and a preference for alternative regimens in some regions.
Note: a revised version of this Short Report (version 2) was published on 8th June 2022, to correct an error on page 7: ‘Among the 1,124 patients with stomach cancer who were classified as having an EB regimen, there were 199 who were prescribed the 30 Gy/10F regimen recommended for oesophageal tumours.’
Read the full report: You can read the report by clicking on the link below.
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