Quality of Care in Relationship to Aborted Cancer Surgery

Surgery is often a central curative treatment for gastrointestinal tumors. Surgical treatment of diagnosed cancer tumors is decided after a comprehensive assessment of the patient's physical status, radiological assessments and after careful evaluation at the multidisciplinary conference. Despite the careful preoperative assessment of patients for curative surgery, the planned operation may unexpectedly need to be canceled. Of the patients who were planned for curative resection for pancreatic cancer in 2021 in Sweden, 90% received the intended surgery, and 10% of planned surgery was canceled. The reason for this was disseminated cancer or locally advanced disease in which radical resection is considered impossible to carry out. A systematic review of knowledge reveals a significant lack of evidence regarding patient-centered research and aborted cancer surgery. The studies in the project have different study designs and methods, and include focus group interviews with staff, translation and validation of a questionnaire to measure care needs, estimation of supportive care needs and patient experiences. An improved understanding and knowledge of patients' preferences and needs is needed to design interventions that can improve health-related quality of life. This project is dedicated to studying patients undergoing aborted cancer surgery, with the aim of improving the quality of care and meeting patients' care needs.