A validation study of the Swedish Colorectal Cancer Registry for cancer of the transverse colon and splenic flexure

Introduction

The Swedish Colorectal Cancer Register (SCRCR) plays an important role in colorectal cancer research, yielding around 30 national studies published annually.

Methods

An extract was made from SCRCR including all patients diagnosed 2018–2021 with cancer of the transverse colon and splenic flexure in the Southern, South-Eastern and Western health care regions of Sweden. As part of a larger review of their medical records, selected parameters were compared with the registry data.

Results

1218 patients with a total of 1235 tumours were included, 967 of whom underwent surgery. All synchronous tumours were registered and could thus invariably be identified but the specific variable was correctly marked in only 19.7% of these cases.

When defining tumour localisation, there was an 88.3% concurrence. TNM was correctly reported in 98.2% (T), 95.1% (N) and 93.9% (M) of the cases. High accuracy was found regarding type of resection (93.5%), laparoscopic versus open surgery (97.5%), robotic versus conventional laparoscopic surgery (99.7%) and conversion from laparoscopic to open surgery (97.7%). The validity of registration of ligated vessels was lower, with 61.5% full accuracy, although there was a wide range between the different vessels. Post-operative complications were registered correctly in 94.7% of the cases.

Discussion

SCRCR is a registry with excellent validity also for transverse colon and splenic flexure tumours, reliably capturing diagnostic and surgical parameters including postoperative complications, although with limited information on ligated vessels.