• Markus Brunner, Sinclair M Gore, Rebecca L Read, Ashlin Alexander, Ankur Mehta, Michael Elliot, Chris Milross, Michael Boyer, and Jonathan R Clark.
• Sydney Head and Neck Cancer Institute, The Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
• Head Neck. 2015 Jul 1; 37 (7): 1046-50.

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was for us to present our findings on the prospectively audited impact of head and neck multidisciplinary team meetings on patient management.MethodsWe collected clinical data, the pre-multidisciplinary team meeting treatment plan, the post-multidisciplinary team meeting treatment plans, and follow-up data from all patients discussed at a weekly multidisciplinary team meeting and we recorded the changes in management.ResultsOne hundred seventy-two patients were discussed in 39 meetings. In 52 patients (30%), changes in management were documented of which 20 (67%) were major. Changes were statistically more likely when the referring physician was a medical or radiation oncologist, when the initial treatment plan did not include surgery, and when the histology was neither mucosal squamous cell cancer nor a skin malignancy. Compliance to the multidisciplinary team meeting treatment recommendation was 84% for all patients and 70% for patients with changes in their treatment recommendation.ConclusionHead and neck multidisciplinary team meetings changed management in almost a third of the cases.© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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