The audit will look at the care that patients are receiving in England and Wales, in order to identify any shortfalls, and try to work out how to improve them.
One of the challenges involved in gathering data on metastatic breast cancer is that these patients are not automatically recorded on the national cancer registries. This audit will try to collect these data in a systematic and comprehensive way.
One focus will be to look at specific groups of patients who have the most difficult problems. One of the clinical co-leads on the audit David Dodwell, says that should include patients at each end of the age range – younger and much older patients.
It may also include patients with triple negative breast cancer, and those with brain metastases, which are very difficult to treat. You can hear more of David’s thoughts here:
David Dodwell, Clinical Lead (Oncology), National Audit of Metastatic Breast Cancer
Since 1st October 2022 NAoPri have been working to set up their governance and infrastructure, and to put in place the project team, including Clinical Leads. They have conducted a scoping exercise to inform priorities for the audits and are analysing the survey results.
All patients diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer from 1st January 2015 onwards in NHS hospitals within England and Wales will be eligible for inclusion. This includes patients diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at initial presentation as well as those diagnosed with metastases after an initial non-metastatic breast cancer diagnosis i.e. at recurrence or progression.
Similar to the previous NABCOP audit, the NAoMe will wish to limit any additional demands on Trusts and will not directly 'collect' clinical patient data. Instead the audit will use existing sources of patient data routinely collected by national organisations in England and Wales. NAoMe will publish a minimum dataset in 2023.
The clinical leads on NaoMe, who will guide this process, are as follows:
- Dr David Dodwell, Clinical Lead (Clinical Oncology)
- Dr Mark Verrill, Clinical Lead (Medical Oncology)
- Professor Kieran Horgan, Clinical Lead (Surgery)
Contact NAoME
Email: breastcanceraudits@rcseng.ac.uk
Twitter: @NAoMe_news