Our specialtiesMembership
Exams & training

Member benefits

View

Audit Library (Clinical oncology)

Audit Library is a collection of audit templates providing a framework identifying best practice in key stages of the audit cycle, covering over a variety of oncology topics.

Search:

Filter By:

Sort By:

Is there a ‘weekend effect’ in the door to needle time of antibiotics administration in cancer patients presenting with suspected neutropenic sepsis

There has been growing interest in the quality of clinical care available in the NHS at weekends in what has been termed the “weekend effect”. Neutropenic sepsis is an oncological emergency requiring prompt antibiotics administration in order to improve outcomes. NICE recommends a door to needle time (DTN) of less than an hour for all suspected cases. This audit aims to assess the management of neutropenic sepsis during the weekend vs weekdays against the NICE standards.

Last Reviewed: 2 May 2024

Staging for Limited Disease SCLC and impact of PET/CT

Small cell lung cancer is an aggressive malignancy but if treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the limited disease (LD) stage can be cured. NICE advocates staging with brain imaging, and alludes to a PET/CT scan for radical lung therapy. In contrast to NSCLC the impact of PET/CT staging has not been clearly defined. We have local guidelines that recommend brain imaging and PET/CT for LD SCLC.

Last Reviewed: 2 May 2024

Audit of Tomotherapy IMRT in the management of Soft Tissue Sarcoma at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, Freeman Hospital

Radiotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas (STS). IMRT is an advanced radiotherapy technique which enables delivery of a highly conformal dose to the target whilst sparing surrounding normal tissue. In the UK, a phase II clinical trial (IMRiS) is currently assessing the feasibility, efficacy and toxicity of IMRT in patients with bone and soft tissue sarcomas.

Last Reviewed: 14 Mar 2020

Treatment of the older patient with Glioblastoma

Gliobastoma is the most common primary brain tumour. It has a particularly poor prognosis in older patients.1 Radical intent treatments are based on trials performed in a younger population and there is a lack of consensus on the "standard" treatment for older patients. When treating older patients it is critical to balance treatment toxicity with the patient's quality of life, especially given the short median life expectancy. To achieve this patients should have a comprehensive assessment prior to treatment with consideration given to co-morbidities, medications and social support. It is also useful to know the MGMT status of the patient's tumour to tailor treatment and this should be carried out if there are resources to do so locally. It is necessary to audit local outcomes to ensure similarity to the national data.

Last Reviewed: 2 May 2024

Febrile Neutropenic Episodes in Men Treated with Docetaxel Chemotherapy for Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer (MHSPC)

Recent clinical trials proving the benefit of docetaxel chemotherapy in hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer (HSMPC) have reported a greater risk of febrile neutropenia (FN) than seen in the castrate-resistant setting. STAMPEDE1 reported 15%, CHAARTED2 6% and GETUG-AFU153 7% grade 3-5 FN in comparison with Tax-3274 which showed 3% FN. Clinical experience at our centre suggested the risk of FN was higher than that experienced in these trials.

Last Reviewed: 14 Mar 2020

Acute toxicity following radiotherapy for gynaecological cancers

Advanced radiotherapy techniques such as IMRT are being advocated in the literature to improve acute and late toxicities for patients having pelvic radiotherapy for gynaecological cancers. It is important to compare toxicity rates with standards within the literature and also if changing from one technique to another to compare toxicity data to ensure that changes in technique are translating into benefit for patients.

Last Reviewed: 16 Jun 2015

Radiotherapy to the supraclavicular fossa: do standard beam arrangements provide adequate coverage?

In an adjuvant setting, it is important to ensure that the intended dose is delivered ot the treatment area. Radiotherapy to the Supraclavicular Fossa is delivered at Barts Health using a direct anterior field set according to local guidelines. The SCF is not routinely contoured. Our audit assessed how well this field covered a contoured SCF.

Last Reviewed: 14 Jun 2015

Preoperative chemoradiotherapy and surgery for oesophageal cancer

The optimal neoadjuvant (NA) regime for cancers of the oesophagus and OGJ remains controversial. In the UK preoperative chemotherapy is the standard of care and we have been slow to adopt chemoradiotherapy (CRT) fearing increased surgical morbidity and under-treatment of systemic disease. The CROSS trial showed improved survival for patients treated with chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and surgery compared to surgery alone and has led to a renewed interest in the use of CRT in the UK.

Last Reviewed: 11 Jun 2015

Efficiency of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy Delivery for Anal Carcinomas

Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is the first line, definitive treatment for Anal Squamous Cell Carcinomas. It is widely accepted that uncompensated interruptions to radiotherapy, therefore prolonging overall treatment time (OTT), increases local recurrence risk. Optimal outcomes depend on adherence to local protocols specifying sequencing, planning, dosage and overall treatment time. Treatment delays should therefore be minimised and treatment interruptions, both planned and unplanned, compensated for as per RCR guidance.

Last Reviewed: 16 Jun 2018

An Audit of Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Vestibular Schwannoma: Early toxicity and dosimetry data

Management of vestibular schwanomma (VS) includes observation, surgical resection or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). In June 2013, the SRS programme switched to Cyberknife at University Hospital Birmingham (UHB). The aim of this audit was assess dosimetry and toxicity with CyberKnife using in-house historic Brainlab data as the standard.

Last Reviewed: 7 Jun 2015

Appropriate patient selection for palliative radiotherapy

Patients referred for palliative radiotherapy have advanced disease and often poor prognosis. Treatment is usually considered to relieve cancer-related symptoms. Toxicity from palliative radiotherapy can continue for several weeks after treatment. Symptomatic benefit is often not noticed until toxicity has resolved. It is important to understand mortality rates following palliative radiotherapy to ensure patients are not dying too soon after treatment to benefit.

Last Reviewed: 7 Jun 2015