Poor Guidelines Compliance Suspected Cause of Most Metastatic GCT Relapses

A retrospective study suggests that the majority of cases of metastatic germ cell tumor (GCT) relapse are due primarily to poor conformity to international treatment guidelines, not to aggressive tumor biology (Abstract 323). This is sobering news considering that 80% of patients with metastatic GCT can be cured when treated appropriately.

The study focused on 78 patients with metastatic GCT that progressed after initial chemotherapy, all of whom were referred to the Institut Gustave Roussy in France between 2000 and 2010 for additional care.

Strikingly, only about half of these individuals (49%) received first-line treatment in accord with international treatment guidelines that were available at the time of disease diagnosis. The most common violations included delays between the delivery of chemotherapy cycles and the indication and timing of postchemotherapy surgery.

Guidelines compliance was markedly higher among patients initially treated at cancer centers as opposed to public or private hospitals (71% vs. 22%, respectively; p = 0.00001). In fact, the only independent predictive factor for guidelines compliance identified was the type of original treatment center (p = 0.00005).

Read more about the study at:http://tinyurl.com/83tshh6

Source: OBR Daily.