The Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry (UGICR): A clinical quality registry to monitor and improve care in upper gastrointestinal cancers

Purpose The Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry (UGICR) was developed to monitor and improve the quality of care provided to patients with upper gastrointestinal cancers in Australia. Participants It supports four cancer modules: Pancreatic, oesophagogastric, biliary and primary liver cancer. The pancreatic cancer (PC) module was the first module to be implemented, with others being established in a staged approach. Individuals are recruited to the registry if they are aged 18 years or older, have received care for their cancer at a participating public/private hospital or private clinic in Australia and do not opt out of participation. Findings to date The UGICR is governed by a multidisciplinary steering committee that provides clinical governance and oversees clinical working parties. The role of the working parties is to develop quality indicators based on best practice for each registry module, develop the minimum datasets and provide guidance in analysing and reporting of results. Data are captured from existing data sources (population-based cancer incidence registries, pathology databases and hospital-coded data) and manually from clinical records. Data collectors directly enter information into a secure web-based Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) data collection platform. The PC module began with a pilot phase, and subsequently, we used a formal modified Delphi consensus process to establish a core set of quality indicators for PC. The second module developed was the oesophagogastric cancer (OGC) module. Results of the 1 year pilot phases for PC and OGC modules are included in this cohort profile. Future plans The UGICR will provide regular reports of risk-adjusted, benchmarked performance on a range of quality indicators that will highlight variations in care and clinical outcomes at a health service level. The registry has also been developed with the view to collect patient-reported outcomes (PROs), which will further add to our understanding of the care of patients with these cancers

The association between the intake of specific dietary components and lifestyle factors and microscopic colitis

Background/Objectives:The incidence of microscopic colitis (MC) has increased over the previous decades. In addition to smoking and drugs, currently unidentified environmental factors may have a role. The aim of this study was to determine whether specific dietary or other lifestyle factors were associated with the development of MC.Subject/Methods:The population-based cohort Malmö Diet and Cancer Study of 28 095 individuals was examined. Information about dietary habits was collected by a modified diet history method. Data on anthropometry were measured, and socio-economic and lifestyle factors were collected by questionnaires. Cases of MC were identified in medical registers. Associations were estimated using Cox regression analysis.Results:During a 22-year period, 135 patients were diagnosed with MC. Intakes of protein, carbohydrates, sucrose, saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids, fibre and zinc were not associated with MC. We could verify the previously reported association between MC and smoking (hazard ratio (HR): 2.29; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.66–3.84) and the female gender (HR: 3.57; 95% CI: 2.22–5.74). High alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk for MC (HR: 1.89 for the highest quartile; 95% CI: 0.82–4.33, P for trend=0.032). In a post hoc analysis, alcohol intake including all patients independently of consumption seemed to reduce the smoking-related risk.Conclusions:Despite a large cohort and a long follow-up period, we could not detect any dietary risk factors for MC. The aetiological mechanisms behind the positive impact of smoking and alcohol on MC risk should be investigated.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 27 July 2016; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2016.130

Radioterapia: lesões inflamatórias e funcionais de órgãos pélvicos Radiotherapy: inflammatory and functional lesions of pelvic organs

A radioterapia pélvica tem sido cada vez mais indicada, em doses crescentes,como coadjuvante no tratamento das neoplasias pélvicas, com resultados cada vez melhores, mas com efeitos colaterais significativos. O advento da radioterapia tridimensional conformal estabelece um método que permite a mais precisa seleção de direção e de intensidade de raios emitidos para alvos pontuais, objetivando quase que exclusivamente o tumor, com a conseqüente preservação dos tecidos vizinhos, portanto com maior efetividade e com o mínimo de efeitos colaterais crônicos e insolúveis. Essas são as possibilidades teóricas que precisam ser comprovadas na prática.Elas envolvem um campo de observação cujos resultados reais tem sido subestimados, principalmente quando referidos a efeitos adversos. Esses não se limitam exclusivamente às mucosites, mas, também, a aspectos funcionais envolvendo incapacidades que vão, quando se trata do reto, além do que sempre foi atribuído à suposta síndrome da ressecção anterior 58, para abranger danos diretos da radiação sobre os complexos esfincterianos e os nervos dos plexos lombo-sacrais 21,22,59-63. Por enquanto, seja para o câncer de reto, para o câncer ginecológico e para o câncer de próstata, somos conclamados a investir no modelo mais preventivo do que curativo, ainda que o preventivo signifique apenas a mais precoce ação, pois para essas doenças de altas incidências e mortalidades "prevenir" no sentido de ação mais precoce é, sem dúvida, bem melhor que remediar, principalmente quando se faz uso das terapias neo-adjuvantes que poderiam ser dispensadas, em casos selecionados, para não somar ao desconforto emocional do portador do câncer todas as impossibilidades das iatrogenias inerentes ao tratamento que objetiva a cura. Assim, precisamos encontrar os fatores preditivos que nos permitam escolher os pacientes com probabilidade de cura apenas com o tratamento cirúrgico, para que eles fiquem livres da radioterapia e, por outro lado, buscar o aperfeiçoamento da técnica de radiação para os casos cujas necessidades excedam a abrangência do tratamento cirúrgico, exclusivo.<br>Radiotherapy reducing local failure rates and improving overall survival has a favorable impact on the primary treatment of rectal cancer. However, radiation as an adjuvant therapy for that purpose and other pelvic malignances has been shown to increase long-term morbidity causing severe rectal or vesical mucositis, sometimes stenosis, undistensibler rectum with reduced capacity and/or anorectal dysfunction due lombosacralneuropathy with physiologic changes whose interaction remains poorly understood 60,63. Those iatrogenic outcomes stress the need for finding predictive factors for local recurrence to exclude patients with very high probability for cure with surgery alone and to use optimized radiation techniques22,64