Multidisciplinary care in cancer: do the current research outputs help?

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Health Services Research
• Evidence-Based Practice

Background:

• Multidisciplinary care (MDC) is increasingly advocated for cancer patients.
• There is a need to assess if research supporting MDC has improved in quality and quantity.
• Previous research has not systematically evaluated the methodological rigor of intervention studies in this field.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if methodologically rigorous intervention research in multidisciplinary cancer care has increased over the last decade.
• To evaluate the proportion of data-based and intervention research meeting specific quality criteria (Cochrane EPOC) over two time periods.
• To identify the extent of high-quality intervention research supporting the implementation of multidisciplinary care models in oncology.

Main Methods:

• Conducted an electronic search of Medline and CINAHL databases for relevant literature.
• Included studies published in English between 1997 and 2006, focusing on multidisciplinary care for cancer patients.
• Assessed papers for data-based research and intervention studies meeting Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) criteria.

Main Results:

• The proportion of data-based papers relevant to multidisciplinary cancer care did not increase between 1997-2001 and 2002-2006.
• Similarly, the proportion of intervention research using EPOC-accepted designs did not show an increase over the study periods.
• Only three intervention studies with EPOC-accepted designs were identified, all published in the later period (2002-2006).

Conclusions:

• Despite the widespread advocacy for multidisciplinary care (MDC) in cancer, there has not been a corresponding increase in rigorous intervention research.
• A significant gap exists in high-quality evidence to guide the optimal implementation of MDC models.
• There is a pressing need to prioritize and develop robust intervention research to identify effective MDC strategies, outcomes, and patient populations in cancer care.