BACKGROUND to BCCOM
The annual ABS at BASO audit of screen detected breast cancer demonstrated variations in the management of screen-detected breast cancer across the UK. Since its inception in 1997, the audit has brought about major improvements in clinical practice.
However, over 70% of all new breast cancer cases are initially detected symptomatically (i.e. patients are referred to a breast clinic by their GP, because of symptoms suggesting breast cancer) and historically the majority of these cases have not been incorporated into a national audit due to the lack of reliable, accurate data.
The BCCOM project, funded by Breakthrough Breast Cancer, aims to extend the audit process to cover symptomatic breast cancer .
AIMS of BCCOM Project
To audit across the UK the treatment of symptomatic breast cancer
To compare management with published national standards and targets
To measure against treatment’ hypotheses/gold standards
To inform the setting of future standards
To obtain complete and accurate outcome measures including survival
HOW are the BCCOM Project aims achieved?
By setting up routine methods to conduct a retrospective audit of the treatment of primary symptomatic (female and male) breast cancer in the UK. This involves tapping into existing data sources such as the data currently collected by cancer registries and individual clinicians, or Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES).
By establishing a complete and accurate dataset of symptomatically detected breast cancers and their management.
By using the data collected to generate clinical outcome measures for individual breast services in order to compare current practice with the recommended guidelines.
Find out more about the BCCOM Project:
BCCOM Newsletter 2006
BCCOM Newsletter January 2007
BCCOM Newsletter July 2007
Project structure
Results of the BCCOM Project Year 1
Results of the BCCOM Project Year 2
The BCCOM Project Year 3
For further information, please contact Catherine Lagord |
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