The pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes The expansion of whole-genome sequencing studies from individual ICGC and TCGA working groups presented the opportunity to undertake a meta-analysis of genomic features across tumour types. To achieve this, the PCAWG Consortium was established. A Technical Working Group implemented the informatics analyses by aggregating the raw sequencing data from different working groups that studied individual tumour types, aligning the sequences to the human genome and delivering a set of high-quality somatic mutation calls for downstream analysis (Extended Data Fig. 1). Given the recent meta-analysis

This is a repository copy of Effectiveness of a national quality improvement programme to improve survival after emergency abdominal surgery (EPOCH) : a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial. Effectiveness of a national quality improvement programme to improve survival after emergency abdominal surgery (EPOCH) : a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial. The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32521-2 eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ ReuseThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. This licence only allows you to download this work and share it with others as long as you credit the authors, but you can't change the article in any way or use it commercially. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Implications of all the available evidenceDespite the success of some smaller projects, there was no survival benefit from a national quality improvement programme to implement a care pathway for patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery. To succeed, large national quality improvement programmes need to allow for differences between hospitals and ensure teams have both the time and resources needed to improve patient care.

Primary melanoma anatomic location is an independent predictor of SLN status and survival. Although HNM has a decreased SLN-positivity rate, it shows a significantly increased risk of recurrence and death as compared with other sites.

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Ann R Coll Surg Engl 2007; 89: 418-421 418Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK. 1 Rates of peri-operative transfusion ranging from 20-75% have been reported in patients undergoing colorectal resection. 2,3Despite innovations in transfusion medicine, peri-operative transfusion of allogeneic blood components has inherent risks including immunomodulation, transmission of disease, allergic reaction, and allo-immunisation. More recently, the introduction of leukocyte-depleted blood has led to an increased cost pressure on health resources.Studies have shown that predictors of increased perioperative transfusion are proximal tumours, increasing tumour size, operative blood loss and pre-operative anaemia. 2,4,5Pre-operative anaemia is a frequent finding in this group of surgical patients and accounts for a substantial number of blood transfusions. Defining anaemia as a haemoglobin of less than 13.5 g/dl in men and 11.5 g/dl in women, locally recorded data from the preceding years' 223 surgical colorectal cancer patients demonstrated that 51% of men and 25% of women were anaemic (38% combined) on admission. The overall transfusion rate in the men and women was 28% and 41%, respectively, whereas in the anaemic patients it was 39% and 68%, respectively.The aim of this study was to assess whether pre-operative oral iron therapy would decrease pre-operative anaemia and, thereby, reduce the incidence of peri-operative transfusion. Patients and MethodsThe study received approval from the Plymouth Healthcare Trust Local Research Ethics Committee.Patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer were identified in out-patient clinics. All patients fit for surgery were SURGICAL ONCOLOGYAnn R Coll Surg Engl 2007; 89: 418-