Improved Utilization of Resources as an Improvement of Outcome: the Effect of Multidisciplinary Team for Rectal Cancer in a District Hospital

Angela Maurizi and Roberto Campagnacci

Department of General Surgery, Carlo Urbani Hospital, Italy

^*Correspondance to: Angela Maurizi 

 PDF  Full Text Research Article | Open Access

Abstract:

Aim: Today, treatment decisions about patients with rectal cancer are increasingly made within the context of a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) meeting. The outcomes of rectal cancer patients before and after the era of multi-disciplinary team was analyzed and compared in this paper. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the value of discussing rectal cancer patients in a multidisciplinary team.Methods: All rectal cancer patients diagnosed and treated in 2014-2015 in the General Surgery Division of the “Carlo Urbani” hospital in Jesi (AN, Italy) were included. According to the national guidelines, neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy should be administered to many rectal cancer patients.Results: Sixty-five patients were included in this study: thirty patients in 2014 (pre-MDT) and thirty-five patients in 2015. Improvements in the pathologic stage were seen in a rather big portion of patients after the introduction of the MDT meetings, thanks to the increased adoption of the neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy.Conclusion: The vast majority of rectal MDT decisions were implemented and when decisions changed, it mostly related to patient factors that had not been taken into account. Analysis of the implementation of team decisions is an informative process in order to monitor the quality of MDT decision-making.

Keywords:

Rectal cancer; Multi-disciplinary team; Patient outcomes; Clinical stage; Pathological stage

Cite the Article:

Maurizi A, Campagnacci R. Improved Utilization of Resources as an Improvement of Outcome: the Effect of Multidisciplinary Team for Rectal Cancer in a District Hospital. Clin Oncol. 2017; 2: 1267.