Oesophago-gastric cancer report 2022 (NOGCA, 12 January 2023)

Summary

This report from the National Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Audit (NOGCA) focuses on the care received by patients diagnosed with invasive epithelial cancer of the oesophagus, gastro-oesophageal junction (GOJ) or stomach, or high-grade dysplasia (HGD) of the oesophagus between April 2019 and March 2021. For outcomes of curative surgery among people with OG cancer, data are reported for a three year period (April 2018 to March 2021).

Content

The report contains a number of findings related to:

• patterns of care at diagnosis
• staging and treatment planning
• waiting times along the care pathway
• curative surgery
• non-curative treatments.

It also includes findings relating to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including:

• In April 2020, the number of patients diagnosed with OG cancer was 43.6% of the 2019/20 monthly average, falling from 837 to 365 cases per month.
• The numbers diagnosed soon returned to normal levels, and in the period from June 2020 to March 2021, the number of monthly cases was 97.8% of 2019/20 levels.
• The percentage of patients diagnosed with stage 4 disease (advanced cancer) increased from 41.6% in 2019/20 to 44.9% in 2020/21.

The report also contains recommendations for healthcare professionals, among which is including a call to review patients diagnosed after emergency admission and undertake root cause analysis to identify opportunities to reduce rates of emergency diagnosis.