Profiling of tumour board characteristics and functioning for cancer care under hospitals registered under National...

Multidisciplinary tumour board (MTB) plays an important role in cancer care by collaborating specialist from various disciplines to discuss diagnosis, treatment plan and patient management. Despite its importance, a systematic evaluations of tumour board in hospital registered under hospital-based cancer registries (HBCRs) is limited. This study aims to assess the characteristics, composition and functioning of tumour board in these hospital to identify gaps and challenges to improve the tumour board operations.

The study was conducted from October 1st to 31st 2024 using cross sectional design among hospital under HBCR. A set of structured questionnaires was administered using Google Form, which consists of both qualitative and quantitative questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to analyze the quantitative data, while manual thematic analysis was carried out to analyze the qualitative responses.

Of 229 hospitals, only 172 (75%) responded. Among them, 137 (79.7%) reported having a functional tumour board. Most of the tumour boards were established in tertiary care centres (45.3%) and medical colleges (43.6%). In-person meeting (73.7%) was the most common with 24.8% following a hybrid model. Only 5.1% of hospitals engaged in cross-hospital case discussions; 16.8% maintained electronic medical record notes; and 48.2% lacked any follow-up mechanisms to track tumour board recommendations and outcomes. Involvement of palliative care specialists and other supportive paramedical health professionals was low. In addition to that, thematic analysis also identified that there was inadequate documentation, inconsistent follow-up and limited tumour board participation.

Although MTBs are established widely in most of the HBCR-affiliated hospitals, variation exist in structure, composition and functionality. Strengthening MTBs through standardised protocol, participation of diverse specialities, increased cross-hospital collaboration, virtual tumour boards and proper documentation practices through electronic data recording systems could enhance the decision making and cancer care outcomes.