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Multidisciplinary Treatment: Influence on Outcomes

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Multidisciplinary Treatment of Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Background. Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer in the western world. Although different treatment modalities are available, many patients suffer from poor functional outcomes, recurrent disease and/or death.

Methods. In 1993, the first national educational programme was launched in Norway in order to improve standards of treatment for rectal cancer and, thus, the prognosis of this disease. Several multidisciplinary workshops were arranged. Simultaneously, a national rectal cancer registry was established. In 1995, a similar programme started in Sweden; later several countries have followed. The aim of this chapter is to describe how these projects were developed, how they were run, what were the problems and what were the results and the consequences.

Results. A few years after starting the projects, the prognosis of rectal cancer improved at national levels. There was a considerable variation of results between hospitals. Patients treated by health-care professionals having attended multidisciplinary workshops had better prognosis than other patients. Multidisciplinary teams have been developed in order to secure workup, decision-making and treatment. During the last years, colon cancer has been included into the same projects. The treatment of colorectal cancer has been increasingly multimodal and tailored according to stage of the disease and the status of the patient.

Conclusions. The lesson to learn is that colorectal cancer treatment is no more a matter of a single surgeon working alone in a small hospital. Modern colorectal cancer treatment is advanced medicine that has to be performed by multidisciplinary teams (MDTs). Multimodal-tailored treatment has been developed and should be offered to every patient with colorectal cancer. Standards of care can only be evaluated within national audits. Quality assurance of cancer care should be mandatory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    Arne Wibe

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Correspondence to Arne Wibe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Odense University Hospital, Svendborg, Denmark

    Gunnar Baatrup

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Wibe, A. (2021). Multidisciplinary Treatment: Influence on Outcomes. In: Baatrup, G. (eds) Multidisciplinary Treatment of Colorectal Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58846-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58846-5_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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