Only 3 in every 100 head and neck cancer (HNC) patients in the U.K. receive the ideal standard of care, according to the National Head and Neck Cancer Audit, which found wide variations in care.
Just 3.1% of patients received care deemed important by experts, according to a story by Cancer Research UK.
But the study also showed an improvement in survival rates among HNC patients over the last two years: The number of patients who survived a year from their diagnosis rose from 84.4% in 2010 to 87.5% in 2012.
The Ideal Patient Pathway guidelines contain seven elements of "holistic and integrated care" such as nutritional, speech and language, and dental assessments and x-rays before surgery. It also involves patients' disease being discussed by a multidisciplinary team including surgeons, oncologists, speech therapists, and nursing staff.
For the study, researchers examined data submitted by HNC teams in England and Wales, regarding the care of 8,100 patients between November 2011 and October 2012.
They found that the largest group of patients (24.7%) received three elements of the guidelines, with some aspects delivered more consistently than others. For example, 96.4% of surgical HNC patients had their case discussed by a multidisciplinary team, but just 18.8% had an assessment with a speech and language therapist before surgery.
The findings were published in the National Head and Neck Cancer Audit annual report 2012, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership.
