National compliance to an evidence-based multidisciplinary guideline on pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma

Background: We evaluated national compliance to selected quality indicators from the Dutch multidisciplinary evidence-based guideline on pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma and identified areas for improvement. Methods: Compliance to 3 selected quality indicators from the guideline was evaluated before and after implementation of the guideline in 2011: 1) adjuvant chemotherapy after tumor resection for pancreatic carcinoma, 2) discussion of the patient within a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting and 3) a maximum 3-week interval between final MDT meeting and start of treatment. Results: In total 5086 patients with pancreatic or periampullary carcinoma were included. In 2010, 2522 patients were included and in 2012, 2564 patients. 1) Use of adjuvant chemotherapy following resection for pancreatic carcinoma increased significantly from 45% (120 out of 268) in 2010 to 54% (182 out of 336) in 2012 which was mainly caused by an increase in patients aged