• Linda Mileshkin, Catherine Dunn, Hannah Cross, Mary Duffy, Mark Shaw, Phillip Antippa, Paul Mitchell, Tim Akhurst, Matthew Conron, Melissa Moore, Jenny Philip, James Bartlett, Jon Emery, and Belinda Zambello.
• Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
• Intern Med J. 2019 Aug 1; 49 (8): 1001-1006.

BackgroundClinical audit may improve practice in cancer service provision. The UK National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) collects data for all new cases of thoracic cancers.AimTo collect similar data for our Victorian patients from six hospitals within the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre and associated Western and Central Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective audit of all newly diagnosed patients with lung cancer and mesothelioma in 2013 across the six Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre/Western and Central Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service hospitals. The objectives were to adapt the NLCA data set for use in the Australian context, to analyse the findings using descriptive statistics and to determine feasibility of implementing a routine, ongoing audit similar to that in the UK. Individual data items were adapted from the NLCA by an expert steering committee. Data were collated from the Victorian Cancer Registry, Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset and individual hospital databases. Individual medical records were audited for missing data.ResultsEight hundred and forty-five patients were diagnosed across the sites in 2013. Most were aged 65-80 (55%) and were male (62%). Most had non-small-cell lung cancer (81%) with 9% diagnosed with small cell lung cancer and 2% with mesothelioma. Data completeness varied significantly between fields. For those with higher levels of completeness, headline indicators of clinical care were comparable with NLCA data. The Victorian population seem to lack access to specialist lung cancer nurse services.ConclusionLung cancer care at participating hospitals appeared to be comparable with the UK in 2013. In future, prospective data collection should be harmonised across sites and correlated with survival outcomes. One area of concern was a lack of documented access to specialist nursing services.© 2018 Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

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