Breast Cancer Outcomes at the Strathfield Breast Centre

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the most common cause of cancer death in women. This report presents outcomes from a multidisciplinary breast clinic established in 1989 with the specific aim of providing a rapid, integrated assessment service for patients with breast disease. Methods: A prospective data collection and analysis using a Microsoft AccessTM (Microsoft Corp., North Ryde, NSW, Australia) database was established and has collected information on all patients presenting for diagnosis or ongoing management of breast cancer. Data on survival were obtained by routine follow-up visits or contact with the patient's general practitioner. Results: Patient age, mode of presentation and histopathology were similar to other population-based studies in Australia. Ninety-three per cent of the patients had a diagnosis confirmed on the day of consultation. The average time between diagnosis and surgery was 1 1.9 days. Breast preserving surgery was attempted in 68% and achieved in 50% of cases, 67% of patients had one stage surgery. Five-year disease-free survival was 74% and is comparable with other reports. Conclusions: The centralization of services and expertise has enabled us to provide efficient service and achieve internationally comparable outcomes.

Patient care in multidisciplinary cancer clinics: Does attention to psychosocial needs predict patient satisfaction?

“…Participants in this study were seen for their initial appointment in a multidisciplinary clinic setting, and may also have had several follow-up appointments before completing our survey. Multidisciplinary clinics bring together various medical disciplines so that the patient can be fully evaluated without the need to schedule separate medical appointments with each provider (Loveridge et al, 1998). Depending on cancer site, a multidisciplinary clinic typically integrates various modalities of care, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and nursing (Gabel et al, 1997;Loveridge et al, 1998;Waite et al, 1994).…”

Cancer Diagnostic Assessment Programs: Standards for the Organization of Care in Ontario

“…The original systematic review by Gagliardi et al 12 included twenty articles that described outcomes related to specific disease-site assessment units: eleven for breast cancer 4,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] , three for colorectal cancer 7,25,26 , and six for head-and-neck cancer [31][32][33][34][35][36] . There were seventeen case series that involved 38-3119 patients, two rcts that included 478 and 791 patients, and one case-control study that included 177 cases and 162 controls 4,7,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][31][32][33][34][35][36] .…”

“…There were seventeen case series that involved 38-3119 patients, two rcts that included 478 and 791 patients, and one case-control study that included 177 cases and 162 controls 4,7,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][31][32][33][34][35][36] . The update of the literature search identified 823 citations in which patient outcomes related to diagnostic assessment units were described for colorectal cancer in four studies [27][28][29][30] , head-and-neck cancer in two studies 37,38 , lung cancer in two studies 39,40 , gynecologic cancers in three studies [41][42][43] , neurologic cancers in one study 44 , lymph node cancers in one study 45 , and upper gastrointestinal cancers in one study 46 .…”

Breast Cancer Outcomes at the Strathfield Breast Centre: Comment

“…Loveridge et al are to be congratulated on their thorough audit and the excellent outcomes they have achieved at the Strathfield Breast Centre 1 . However, we are disturbed by their conclusion that states that their results have been dependent on the centralization of specialist services.…”