Pathological Features and Prognostication in Colorectal Cancer

The prognostication of colorectal cancer (CRC) has traditionally relied on staging as defined by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM staging classifications. However, clinically, there appears to be differences in survival patterns independent of stage, suggesting a complex interaction of stage, pathological features, and biomarkers playing a role in guiding prognosis, risk stratification, and guiding neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies. Histological features such as tumour budding, perineural invasion, apical lymph node involvement, lymph node yield, lymph node ratio, and molecular features such as MSI, KRAS, BRAF, and CDX2 may assist in prognostication and optimising adjuvant treatment. This study provides a comprehensive review of the pathological features and biomarkers that are important in the prognostication and treatment of CRC. We review the importance of pathological features and biomarkers that may be important in colorectal cancer based on the current evidence in the literature.

P-OGC53 Dashboarding for real-time analysis of oesophagogastric outcomes data

Background The typical paradigm for surgical service evaluation is intermittent audit based on perceived clinical need and mandated requirements. A better model would be monitoring patient outcomes automatically in real-time, with up-to-date cumulative frequencies of key surgical performance indicators such as surgical quality and morbidity, as changes in performance could be detected and reacted to at an earlier stage. This study aimed to develop a dashboarding technology to support real-time visualisation of prospectively maintained oesophagogastric cancer surgery data. Methods CODA is a bespoke databank (implemented in MS SQL Server, with HTML, C# and JavaScript) for oesophagogastric cancer care at our centre. We built on a custom dashboard interface for displaying this information in real-time, using Shiny for R and Tableau. We identified the key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor in the dashboard, and defined benchmarks based on accepted standards, or our prevailing performance (based on 448 consecutive patients who underwent oesophagectomy between 2015 – 2020). The domains selected were surgical quality, length of stay, early mortality, and priority complications. Complications were defined according to the Esophagectomy Complications Consensus Group. Results For surgical quality, our benchmarks based on prevailing performance were (i) >90% >15 lymph node yield (ii) <2-5% longitudinal R1 (iii) <20-30% CRM R1. For length of stay, our benchmarks were (i) >33% meeting 8 day discharge target (ii) <15% missing target discharge without a medical complication (iii) <20% staying longer than two weeks. For 30 & 90 day mortality, our benchmarks were 2% and 4% respectively. For complications, two sets were identified: (i) common complications (occurring at > 2 / year, monitored 2-yearly) (ii) impactful complications (>1 / year, >1 week median additional stay, monitored 5-yearly) Conclusions The CODA dashboard provides real-time appraisal of oesophagogastric cancer surgery practice, highlighting changes in performance and providing opportunity for early intervention. The platform can be used for personal, departmental or inter-institutional service evaluation. The KPIs will be extended to oesophagogastric cancer survival as the test set matures. The interface and wider benefits of CODA implementation are presented, together with the dissemination plan for use in other oesophagogastric centres.

P-OGC86 Textbook Outcome following Oesophagectomy for Oesophageal Cancer: An International Cohort Study

Background Although textbook outcome (TO) has been proposed as a tool for the assessment of oncological surgical care, an international assessment in patients undergoing oesophagectomy for oesophageal cancer has not been reported. This study aimed to assess TO in an international setting. Methods Patients undergoing curative resection for oesophageal cancer were identified from the international Oesophagogastric Anastomosis Audit (OGAA) from April 2018 - December 2018. TO was defined as the percentage of patients who underwent a complete tumour resection with at least 15 lymph nodes in the resected specimen and an uneventful postoperative course, without hospital readmission. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was used to identify factors independently associated with TO, and results are presented as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI95%). Results This study included 2,159 patients with oesophageal cancer, of whom 39.7% achieved a TO. The outcome parameter ‘no major postoperative complication’ had the greatest negative impact on a TO for patients with oesophageal cancer, compared to other TO parameters. Multivariable analysis identified male gender, increasing Charlson comorbidity index, and higher AJCC T and N staging to be associated with a significantly lower likelihood of TO. After accounting for these factors, high volume centres (>50 cases/year; OR: 1.36, CI95%: 1.06 - 1.75, p = 0.015), presence of 24-hour on-call rota for oesophageal surgeons (OR: 2.11, CI95%: 1.33 - 3.35, p = 0.001) and radiology (OR: 1.56, CI95%: 1.08 - 2.26, p = 0.019), total minimally invasive esophagectomies (OR: 1.60, CI95%: 1.25 - 2.05, p < 0.001), and chest anastomosis above azygous (OR: 2.17, CI95%: 1.58 - 2.98, p < 0.001) were independently associated with a significantly increased likelihood of TO. Conclusions TO is achieved in less than 40% of patients having oesophagectomy for cancer. Improvements in centralisation, hospital resources (i.e. daily 24-hour on-call esophagogastric surgeons and radiologists), access to minimal access surgery, and adoption of newer techniques for improving lymph node yield could improve TO. Understanding how these individual parameters help improve quality of patient care should be the focus of future research.

Lymph node yield during surgery after neoadjuvant therapy compared to surgery without neoadjuvant therapy in patients with esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, or rectal carcinoma: systematic review and meta-analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The lymph node yield is an important surrogate parameter for assessing the oncological radicality of the resection of gastrointestinal carcinomas and a prognostic factor in these diseases. It remains unclear if and to what extent neoadjuvant chemotherapy, radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy, which have become established treatments for carcinoma of the esophagus, stomach, and rectum and are increasingly used in pancreatic carcinoma, affect the lymph node yield. OBJECTIVE This systematic review with meta-analysis is conducted with the aim of summarizing the available evidence regarding the oncological surrogate marker lymph node yield in patients with gastrointestinal carcinomas undergoing surgery after neoadjuvant treatment compared to those operated without neoadjuvant therapy. METHODS Studies comparing oncological resection of esophageal, stomach, pancreatic and rectal carcinoma with and without prior neoadjuvant therapy are eligible for inclusion regardless of study design. Publications will be identified with a defined search strategy in the electronic databases PubMed and Cochrane Library. The primary endpoint of the analysis is the number of lymph nodes identified in the resected specimen. Secondary endpoints include number of harvested metastatic lymph nodes, operation time, postoperative complications, pTNM staging, and overall and recurrence-free survival time. Using suitable statistical methods, the endpoints between patients with and without neoadjuvant therapy as well as in defined subgroups (neoadjuvant chemotherapy, neoadjuvant radiotherapy, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, and rectal cancer) will be compared. RESULTS As of October 2021, we started with the data collection. CONCLUSIONS This systematic review with meta-analysis is conducted with the aim of summarizing the available evidence regarding the oncological surrogate marker lymph node yield in patients with gastrointestinal carcinomas undergoing surgery after neoadjuvant treatment compared to those operated without neoadjuvant therapy. CLINICALTRIAL This systematic review is registered at PROSPERO, ID: 218459.