Impact of optional multidisciplinary tumor board meeting on the mortality of patients with gastrointestinal cancer: A retrospective observational study

• Published in: Cancer reports Vol. 4; no. 4; pp. e1373 - n/a
• Main Authors: Basendowah, Mohammed, Awlia, Alaa M., Alamoudi, Hanin A., Ali Kanawi, Hala M., Saleem, Abdulaziz, Malibary, Nadim, Hijazi, Hussam, Alfawaz, Mohammed, Alzahrani, Anas H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.08.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Adjuvants; Adult; Aged; Body mass index; Cancer therapies; Chemotherapy; Clinical Decision-Making - methods; Colorectal cancer; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Gastric cancer; Gastroenterology; gastrointestinal cancer; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - diagnosis; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - mortality; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - therapy; Hospitals; Humans; Length of Stay - statistics & numerical data; Male; Metastasis; Middle Aged; Mortality; multidisciplinary tumor board meeting; Observational studies; Oncology; Original; Pancreatic cancer; Patient Admission - statistics & numerical data; Patient Care Planning; Patient Care Team - organization & administration; Patients; Radiation therapy; retrospective; Retrospective Studies; Saudi Arabia - epidemiology; Surgery; Teams; Treatment Outcome; Saudi Arabia; mortality; retrospective; multidisciplinary tumor board meeting; gastrointestinal cancer
• ISSN: 2573-8348; 2573-8348
• DOI: 10.1002/cnr2.1373

Background Multidisciplinary tumor board meetings (MDTs) have shown a positive effect on patient care and play a role in the planning of care. However, there is limited evidence of the association between MDTs and patient mortality and in‐hospital morbidity for mixed cases of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer. Aim To evaluate the influence of optional MDTs on care of patients with cancer to determine potential associations between MDTs and patient mortality and morbidity. Methods and results This was a retrospective observational study at the referral center of King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Among all adult patients diagnosed with GI cancer from January 2017 to June 2019, 130 patients were included. We categorized patients into two groups: 66 in the control group (non‐MDT) and 64 in the MDT group. The main outcome measure was overall mortality, measured by survival analysis. The follow‐up was 100% complete. Four patients in the MDT group and 13 in the non‐MDT group died (P = .04). The median follow‐up duration was 294 days (interquartile range [IQR], 140‐434) in the non‐MDT group compared with 176 days (IQR, 103‐466) in the MDT group (P = .20). There were no differences in intensive care unit or hospital length‐of‐stay or admission rates. The overall mortality at 2 years was 13% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.06‐0.66) in the MDT group and 38% (95% CI, 0.10‐0.39) in the non‐MDT group (P = .08). The MDT group showed a 72% (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.28; 95% CI, 0.08‐0.90; P = .03) decrease in mortality over time compared with the non‐MDT group. Conclusions MDTs were associated with decreased mortality over time. Thus, MDTs have a positive influence on patient care by improving survival and should be incorporated into care.