title: The EURECCA project: Data items scored by European colorectal cancer audit registries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The EURECCA (European Registration of Cancer Care) consortium is currently formed by nine independently founded national colorectal audit registrations, of which most already run for many years. The cumulative experience of EURECCA's participants could be used to identify a 'core dataset' that covers all important aspects needed for high quality auditing and at the same time lacking needless data items that only consumes administrative effort. The aim of this study is to compare the data items used by the nine registries participating in EURECCA to identify a core dataset and explore options for future research.
  
  
  METHODS
  All colorectal outcome registrations participating in the EURECCA project were asked to supply a list with all the data items they score. Items were scored 'present' if they appeared literally in a registration or in case they could be calculated using other items in the same registration. The definition of a 'shared data item' was that at least eight of the nine participating registries scored the item.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of registered data items varied between 254 (Belgium) and 83 (Norway). Among the 45 variables were patient data, data about preoperative staging, surgical treatment, pre- or postoperative radio- and/or chemotherapy, and follow-up. Items about tumour recurrence or quality of life were scored too little to become shared data items.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A total of 45 items were collected by 8 or more of the participating registries and subsequently met the criteria for a shared data item.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Leiden University Medical Center, K6-R, PO Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: van Gijn
authors.forename: C B M
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: van den Broek
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mroczkowski
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dziki
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pavalkis
authors.forename: M W J M
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Wouters
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Møller
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wibe
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Påhlman
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harling
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Penninckx
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Valentini
authors.forename: C J H
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: van de Velde
mesh_terms: D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D005062:European Union; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012042:Registries / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome