title: ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care: Soft Tissue Sarcoma in Adults and Bone Sarcoma. A critical review.
abstract: ECCO essential requirements for quality cancer care (ERQCC) are checklists and explanations of organisation and actions that are necessary to give high-quality care to patients who have a specific tumour type. They are written by European experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care. ERQCC papers give oncology teams, patients, policymakers and managers an overview of the elements needed in any healthcare system to provide high quality of care throughout the patient journey. References are made to clinical guidelines and other resources where appropriate, and the focus is on care in Europe. Sarcoma: essential requirements for quality care • Sarcomas - which can be classified into soft tissue and bone sarcomas - are rare, but all rare cancers make up more than 20% of cancers in Europe, and there are substantial inequalities in access to high-quality care. Sarcomas, of which there are many subtypes, comprise a particularly complex and demanding challenge for healthcare systems and providers. This paper presents essential requirements for quality cancer care of soft tissue sarcomas in adults and bone sarcomas. • High-quality care must only be carried out in specialised sarcoma centres (including paediatric cancer centres) which have both a core multidisciplinary team and an extended team of allied professionals, and which are subject to quality and audit procedures. Access to such units is far from universal in all European countries. • It is essential that, to meet European aspirations for high-quality comprehensive cancer control, healthcare organisations implement the requirements in this paper, paying particular attention to multidisciplinarity and patient-centred pathways from diagnosis and follow-up, to treatment, to improve survival and quality of life for patients.
  
  
  
  Taken together, the information presented in this paper provides a comprehensive description of the essential requirements for establishing a high-quality service for soft tissue sarcomas in adults and bone sarcomas. The ECCO expert group is aware that it is not possible to propose a 'one size fits all' system for all countries, but urges that access to multidisciplinary teams is guaranteed to all patients with sarcoma.
authors.affiliation: International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS); Clinical Department of Oncology, University Medical Centre of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Andritsch
authors.affiliation: European School of Oncology, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beishon
authors.affiliation: European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOPE); Centre for Child, Youth and Women's Medicine, Stuttgart Cancer Centre, Clinic Stuttgart - Olgahospital, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bielack
authors.affiliation: European Society for Surgical Oncology (ESSO); Department of Surgery, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonvalot
authors.affiliation: European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO); Adult Mesenchymal Tumour Medical Oncology Unit, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Casali
authors.affiliation: European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP); OLVG, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crul
authors.affiliation: European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM); Department of Diagnostic Imaging (Radiology) and Nuclear Medicine, San Pedro Hospital and Centre for Biomedical Research of La Rioja (CIBIR), University of La Rioja, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Delgado Bolton
authors.affiliation: European Musculo-Skeletal Oncology Society (EMSOS); Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide Maria
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Donati
authors.affiliation: European Society of Radiology (ESR); Department of Radiology, University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Douis
authors.affiliation: European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO); Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.affiliation: European Society of Pathology (ESP); Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Pancras
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hogendoorn
authors.affiliation: European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOPE); European CanCer Organisation (ECCO), Belgium.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kozhaeva
authors.affiliation: European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS); Department of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Verna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lavender
authors.affiliation: Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI); National Institute of Oncology, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Jozsef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lovey
authors.affiliation: European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), Belgium.
authors.forename: Anastassia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Negrouk
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE); Clinic for Radiology, Minimally-Invasive Therapies and Nuclear Medicine, SLK-Clinics Heilbronn, Karl-Ruprecht-University of Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Germany.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: European CanCer Organisation (ECCO), Belgium.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roca
authors.affiliation: International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG); Unité Fonctionnelle de Soins Oncologiques de Support, Institut Curie-Hôpital René Huguenin, Saint Cloud, France.
authors.forename: Godelieve Rochette
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: de Lempdes
authors.affiliation: European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC); Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Palliative Care, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Tiina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saarto
authors.affiliation: ECCO Patient Advisory Committee (PAC), United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van Berck
authors.affiliation: European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOPE); Gustave Roussy Institute, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vassal
authors.affiliation: Sarcoma Patients Euro Net (SPAEN); ECCO Patient Advisory Committee (PAC).
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wartenberg
authors.affiliation: Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL), Belgium.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yared
authors.affiliation: European School of Oncology (ESO), Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: European CanCer Organisation (ECCO); Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Electronic address: peter.naredi@gu.se.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Naredi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D010166:Palliative Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D017741:Survivors
keywords: Audit; Bone sarcoma; Cancer centre; Cancer centres; Cancer unit; Cancer units; Care pathways; Europe; European CanCer Organisation; Multidisciplinary; Multidisciplinary team; Multidisciplinary working; Organisation of care; Paediatric cancer; Patient-centred; Quality; Quality assurance; Rare cancer; Sarcoma; Soft tissue sarcoma