Impact of guidelines on patient selection for lung cancer surgery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An evaluation of surgical resection rates before and after the introduction of the 2010 British Thoracic Society Guidelines on Radical Management of Lung Cancer
IRAS ID
295021
Contact name
Eric Lim
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
Resection rate in lung cancer refers to the number of operations performed on all patients diagnosed with lung cancer and is a marker of quality of care: higher resection rates are associated with higher overall survival.
The 2010 BTS Guidelines for Radical Management of Patients with Lung Cancer, in an effort to increase the surgical resection rates, changed the paradigm for the selection of patients that undergo lung cancer surgery and recommended surgery for N2 disease and less strict cut off values of lung function when evaluating patients for surgery. These conclusions conflicted with recommendations from the NICE Guidelines that were published in 2011.
Whilst many international societies issue guidelines on many occasions, little work has been undertaken to evaluate the impact of their recommendations on acceptability by clinicians and any change in practice.
The aims of this work are two-fold, i) to evaluate the lung cancer resection service rates in the UK before and after the introduction of the Guidelines, and ii) to determine the demographic profile of the service provision (stage and lung function) before and after the introduction of the Guidelines.
Ultimately, our objective is to ascertain the behaviors of clinicians in the presence of conflicting recommendations.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/0204
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion