Mr Keith Roberts is the SSL for Pancreatic Cancer.
The remit of the Pancreas SSL is to encourage and develop national research in pancreatic cancer. To date we have run the RICOCHET national audit, national studies of the impact of COVID upon the delivery of cancer care, the impact of PET-CT upon the pathway and one year outcomes. We have conducted questionnaires to determine surveillance practice (in conjunction with the upper GI and CRLM SSLs) and of managing borderline and locally advanced pancreatic cancer.
The RICOCHET audit has demonstrated wide variation in the use of PERT in cancer with rates highest among those patients who had been resected (~97%) and lowest among those with unresectable cancer, treated at non-speciliast sites (~40%). We are currently analysing pathways to treatment and the management of jaundice. RICOCHET 2 aims to capture data to 12 months on this cohort.
The covid studies described the impact of covid upon treatment delivery across the specialist UK sites, during the first wave and repeated in February 2021. COVID surg HPB cohort is yet to be reported by the COVIDSurg group but will describe the impact of COVID upon surgical outcomes. The CONTACT study will describe the treatments received and one year outcomes, following diagnosis of pancreatic cancer during the first wave of Covid in 2020, compared to a cohort diagnosed in early 2019.
There is a need to determine the optimal surveillance program after surgery. We are collaborating with other specialities and with colleagues across the UK to take this work forward. We are supporting Mr Aroori and the RAW study as this will provide valuable data on the outcomes of patients in and outside of surveillance in the UK. We will be conducting vital PPI work in the near future.
PARANOIA is an international registry to define POPF and risk factors. This will be live soon and will provide surgeons with their own risk adjusted POPF outcomes, including CUSUM analysis. The registry will be freely accessible to surgeons and academics who wish to explore risk factors for POPF in this registry. Futhermore, the platform will provide a novel way to conduct multicentre studies and could over come many of the problems with more traditional trial methodology in this setting. Trainees conducted a total of five systematic reviews and meta analyses to inform the PARANOIA platform. It is endorsed by the EAHPBA and national societies.
In 2021 we will hold events to discuss research across the UK to include surveillance, nutrition/PEI and PERT and national audit.