Currently available quality improvement initiatives in surgical oncology

Abstract

For most cancers, surgical therapy offers the only hope for cure. Nevertheless, evidence suggests wide variation in cancer care, and therefore it is imperative to ensure that high standards of care are being met. Few initiatives currently exist that are focused on cancer care quality, and there is no program measuring short-term surgical outcomes following cancer surgery. Improvements in care will likely come from performance programs that provide reliable, robust, and actionable information in a timely manner such that performance feedback can occur more frequently and at earlier stages in the treatment and disease process.