Cancer Council NSW is following up patients who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer in NSW in 2000, to study the relationship between survival and treatments for this cancer and patient outcomes including survival.

In 2000 the Cancer Council NSW conducted a study of the patterns of care received by patients with a diagnosis of colorectal cancer. The aim of the study was to see how many patients were managed according to the national treatment guidelines for colorectal cancer.

Now, researchers are further adding to this study by examining how survival varies according to the treatments received.

Study personnel

Prof Dianne O’Connell
Chief Investigator

Katie Armstrong
Project Coordinator

Aims of the study

The aim of this project is to look at longer term survival outcomes for patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer in NSW, in the year 2000, for whom treatment information was collected in the NSW Colorectal Cancer Care Survey. Survival (of at least 5 years) will be examined and compared for the different treatments, and according to surgeon’s caseload and characteristics of the hospital where they were treated.

It is anticipated that the information will provide evidence for the importance of treatment in accordance with evidence-based guidelines to obtain the best patient outcomes. It may also provide evidence on whether treatment by experienced practitioners or experienced hospitals influence outcomes. This will provide information on which to base care for colorectal cancer that delivers the best possible outcomes.

Study plan

The first stage of this project is to link records from the NSW Colorectal Cancer Care Survey with the NSW Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the Australian Bureau of Statistics Mortality dataset. This will allow us to determine date and cause of death for patients whose treatment data were collected in the survey. The linkage process will be carried out by the Centre for Health Record Linkage.

This information will then be used to analyse individual patient outcomes. Data will also be analysed in consultation with The Surgical Outcomes Research Centre at the University of Sydney to look at hospital level concordance with the guidelines and patient outcomes.

Study news

This project was granted ethics approval in April 2009. The record linkage component was completed in September with data analysis commencing soon after. We plan to analyse data on concordance with the guidelines and survival by March 2010.

Contact us

For further information, please contact us at crd@nswcc.org.au or call us on 02 9334 1860.