Introduction

Post endoscopy upper gastrointestinal cancers (PEUGIC) are often missed opportunities to diagnose earlier or even prevent cancer. PEUGIC in patients undergoing surveillance for pre-malignant conditions are a potentially important surveillance quality indicator. A national process for identifying all PEUGIC in the English National Health Service and performing root cause analysis was developed.

Aims & Methods

Potential PEUGIC between 2017 and 2023 occurring 3-36 months after an index endoscopy which did not result in a cancer diagnosis were identified from National Cancer Registration Dataset and Hospital Episode Statistics held by the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service. Data from local root cause analysis were uploaded onto a secure portal for national analysis. Only PEUGIC following surveillance endoscopy were included in this analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify associations.

Results

3151 potential PEUGIC were examined by local reviewers in 144 English hospitals. 635 (20%) were excluded and data were available for 2516 PEUGIC. 618 PEUGIC (24.6%) were undergoing surveillance for: Barrett’s oesophagus (83%); chronic atrophic gastritis (7%) or other conditions (10%). PEUGIC sites were oesophagus 85%, stomach 13% and duodenum 1%. 5% of PEUGIC were not related to the pre-malignant condition under surveillance.
Table 1 summarises the PEUGIC root cause analysis results based on the World Endoscopy Organisation categorisation. Inadequate endoscopy or decision making occurred in 30% of PEUGIC (categories B/D) and was associated with patient harm OR 2.61 (95% CI 1.74 -3.92).
Seattle biopsy protocol compliance was only 58% in Barrett’s surveillance PEUGIC. Additional focal or cancer associated lesions were present at index endoscopy in the PEUGIC segment in 23%.
Oesophageal and gastric PEUGIC often presented with stage 2 cancers or greater (48% and 43% respectively). 45.2% of oesophageal and 47.0% of gastric PEUGIC were considered at least possibly avoidable. Treatment was adversely affected with palliative treatment in 22% of oesophageal and 30% of gastric PEUGIC. 6% led to premature death.
Endoscopy practices associated with stage ≥2 cancer were: sedation without opioids OR 1.75 (95% CI 1.03-2.97); lack of image enhancement OR 1.78 (95% CI 1.18-2.70) and lack of dedicated surveillance sessions OR 2.08 (95% CI 1.46-2.98).

Table 1 Root causes of all surveillance PEUGIC

Conclusion

Inadequate assessment or decision making was noted in 30% of surveillance PEUGIC, which adversely affected treatment in 20% of oesophageal and 30% of gastric PEUGIC. 48% of oesophageal and 43% of gastric PEUGIC patients presented with stage 2 cancer or greater suggesting potential failures of surveillance. Optimal sedation practice, image enhancement and dedicated surveillance sessions were associated with stage 1 PEUGIC and better outcomes.