Impact of Nationwide Enhanced Implementation of Best Practices in Pancreatic Cancer Care (PACAP-1)

Rationale:

The Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Project (PACAP) is an initiative of the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Group and was officially launched in July 2014. PACAP is 1 of the largest nationwide collaborative outcomes registration and biobanking projects on pancreatic and periampullary cancer worldwide and includes the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Audit (DPCA), the Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), an online expert panel, and the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR, Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization; IKNL). During the first 3 years of PACAP, regional variations in treatment and guideline (non-)compliance were observed. These differences may lead to differences in survival and quality of life of pancreatic cancer patients throughout the Netherlands. From PACAP data and literature, best practices for pancreatic cancer care have been identified.

Objective:

The aim of PACAP-1 is to evaluate to what extent an enhanced implementation of best practices in pancreatic cancer care in the Netherlands leads to a prolonged survival and improvement of quality of life as compared to current practice.

Study design:

The PACAP-1 trial is a nationwide stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial. In a per center stepwise and randomized manner, best practices in pancreatic cancer care are implemented in all 17 Dutch pancreatic centers. A regional pancreatic cancer team will be established per pancreatic center that functions as point of contact for peripheral centers in the region. Patient outcomes and compliance will be monitored by the registries founded in the PACAP initiative.

Study Population:

Prospective cohort of all pancreatic cancer patients diagnosed and treated in the Netherlands.

Interventions:

Best practices will be implemented in 3 key medical specialties in pancreatic cancer care: medical oncology, surgery and gastroenterology. Best practices will be implemented in centers during a 6 week intensive initiation period which includes monitoring, return visits, provider feedback in combination with education and reminders. The best practices follow the Dutch guideline on pancreatic cancer and the current state of the literature and can be executed without additional overall costs per center.

Main study outcomes:

The primary outcome is 1-year overall survival. Secondary outcomes include quality of life (first secondary outcome), 3- and 5-year overall survival and success of implementation of every PACAP-1 intervention and participation in DPCG randomized trials.

Inclusion criteria

patients:

• All pancreatic cancer patients

Exclusion criteria

patients:

• There are no specific exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria

clusters:

• All 17 centers of the DPCG. These centers each perform >20 pancreatoduodenectomies (PDs) annually. Each center already has a coordinating role for pancreatic cancer for its region. It is expected that the enhanced implementation of best practices will have an impact in the entire local network

Exclusion criteria

clusters:

• There are no specific center exclusion criteria