Practicability of quality goals for the treatment of rectal cancer.

PURPOSE

In 2007, the German Working Group "Workflow Rectal Cancer II" published 19 quality indicators with 36 quality goals for the treatment of rectal cancer. We investigate whether these parameters are practicable in a specialized coloproctologic unit.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We included 578 consecutive patients with rectal cancer who were treated in our institution from January 2000 to December 2008. Patient data were collected in a prospective database. Follow-up was conducted in a colorectal tumor clinic. Data were analyzed for the defined reference groups, and the results were compared with the quality goals.

RESULTS

Median follow-up was 54.4 (range 1-116) months. We achieved 19 of the 36 defined quality goals. Among these were important parameters such as the rate of postoperative mortality (0.9%), the rate of intraoperative local tumor perforation (2.2% for anterior resection and 8.5% for abdominoperineal excision), the 5-year local recurrence rate (5.9% stages I-III), and the 5-year overall survival rates for stages yII and II (79.9%), and stages yIII and III (60.7%) for patients with microscopically negative resection margins.

CONCLUSION

Most of the defined quality goals can be achieved in a specialized coloproctologic unit. The debate on quality goals has the potential to enable further improvement in the care of rectal cancer patients.