The Dutch Upper GI Cancer Audit: 2011-2014.

Abstract

309 Background: In 2011, the Dutch Upper GI Cancer Audit (DUCA) group started with a nationwide registration of all patients who underwent surgery for esophageal or gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to describe the initiation and implementation of the DUCA and to provide an overview of the results. Methods: The DUCA is part of the Dutch Institute for Clinical Auditing. It provides (surgical) teams with reliable, weekly updated, benchmarked information on process and (casemix-adjusted) outcome measures. A web-based registration was designed, based on a set of predefined quality measures. Results: Between 2011 and 2014, a total of 4672 patients with esophageal or gastric cancer was registered in the DUCA. Case ascertainment has approached 100% for patients registered in 2014. The percentage of patients with esophageal cancer starting treatment within 5 weeks after diagnosis significantly increased over time (33 to 41%) and the percentage of patients with a minimum of 15 lymph nodes in the resected specimen significantly increased for both esophageal cancer (50 to 73%) and gastric cancer (48 to 74%). Postoperative mortality decreased for patients with gastric cancer (8.0% in 2011 to 4.0% in 2014; p = 0.020) and remained stable (around 4%) for patients with esophageal cancer. Conclusions: Nationwide implementation of the DUCA has been successful. Results give a valuable insight in the quality of the surgical care for patients with esophageal or gastric cancer and show a positive trend for various process and outcome measures.