[The importance of correct policy options for oncologic patient care]

During recent years, a growing number of papers have been published, showing how the treatment of malignant disease can meet, in various centres, with varying degrees of success. Doubtlessly, many more such papers would reach the journals hut for the lack of reliable follow-up data concerning survival, staging, type of treatment, selection criteria, etc. This article summarizes some data of 7 examples derived from observations in continental Europe, the UK, Canada and the US. Their most remarkable feature are the far from negligible differences in outcome (either in survival or in related "administrative" parametres such as treatment waiting time). Most of these studies stress the importance for oncologic patient care, of factors that are not directly related to primary clinical and/or scientific competence, but to policy and management aspects of the problem such as: providing adequate staff and technical infrastructure, creating cooperative networks and, last hut not least, organizing possibilities to collect, as widely as possible, enough data allowing a reliable appraisal of what has, or has not, been achieved.