Colorectal cancer adjuvant chemotherapy decision tool (legacy)

Description: Colorectal cancer adjuvant chemotherapy decision tool

Publet Introduction:

This demonstrator is a decision support system designed to provide individualised risk prognostication in postoperative chemotherapy treatment of Dukes B stage patients with bowel cancer.

Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK with 35,000 people diagnosed every year. More than a third of all bowel cancer patients are offered postoperative chemotherapy to reduce the risk of recurrence and prolong survival. At present, however, many patients are exposed to chemotherapy with the risk of side effects but negligible benefit. This is particularly true for patients at low risk of recurrence (Dukes B). New genomic tests to predict prognosis have recently been developed such as the microarray gene expression profiling for Dukes B patients by chip provider, ALMAC Diagnostics, and provide good overall prognostic accuracy. But as it remains unclear how microarray gene expression profiling can be optimally combined with conventional evidence to give accurate risk estimates, this computerised decision support system has been developed to bring together standard clinicopathological information with gene expression profile data.

 Information
Guideline Objectives

To provide individualised risk prognostication in the postoperative chemotherapy treatment of Dukes B stage patients with bowel cancer.

Target SettingHospital-based cancer care
Target Users
  • Author
  • Release Date
Overview
Provenance
Management

To provide individualised risk prognostication in the postoperative chemotherapy treatment of Dukes B stage patients with bowel cancer.

Safety Case
Sources

The system’s knowledge base uses the most recent guidelines and textbooks and expert interpretation of the current knowledge regarding the value of adjuvant chemotherapy in Dukes B stage patients. It also uses literature from the fields of risk representation and communication, informed decision making, risk/benefit calculation models, colorectal cancer datasets. Links have also been developed with ALMAC Diagnostics to access and make use of its latest gene expression profiling test results.

References