Members of our HDI analyst team have been working with the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) and AMMF – The cholangiocarcinoma charity to study geographical variations in cholangiocarcinoma treatments in England. Our Principal Analyst Sophie Jose is the lead author on a newly published paper highlighting the key findings of this research.
The paper presents data on patients in England diagnosed with the primary liver cancer cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) between 2014 and 2017. The results show significant geographical variation in treatment for CCA, which is often diagnosed at a late stage. Late presentation means that potentially curative surgery is not an option for many and this was reflected in the data, as half of patients did not receive any surgery, or other treatment which could include systemic therapy or stent insertion.
People with CCA experience poor outcomes. It is therefore important to increase the therapeutic options available through earlier diagnosis to preserve opportunities for surgical intervention and more effective systemic treatments. It is hoped that these data will encourage further investigation into the reasons for observed variation in order to reduce inequality and improve patient outcomes.
You can read the paper here: Cohort study to assess geographical variation in cholangiocarcinoma treatment in England (windows.net)