Missed cancer in the Danish head and neck cancer fast-track program: results from a tertiary cancer center

BackgroundThe Danish head and neck cancer fast-track program is a national standardized pathway aiming to reduce waiting time and improve survival for patients suspected of cancer in the head and neck (HNC). Until now, the frequency of missed cancer in the fast-track program has not been addressed. A missed cancer leads to treatment delay and may cause disease progression and worsening of prognosis. The study objective was to estimate the frequency of patients with missed cancers in the Danish HNC fast-track program and to evaluate the accuracy of the program.Materials and MethodsPatients who were rejected from the HNC fast-track program because cancer was not found between 1 July 2012 and 31 December 2018 at Odense University Hospital, Denmark were included and followed for three years. Patients were categorized into groups depending on the diagnostic evaluation. Group 1 included patients evaluated with standard clinical work-up without imaging and biopsy. Group 2 included patients evaluated with imaging and/or biopsy in addition to the standard clinical work-up. The local cancer database and electronic patient records were reviewed to determine if a missed cancer had occurred within the follow-up period.ResultsA total of 8345 HNC fast-track courses were initiated during the study period. 1499 were patients suspected of recurrent cancer and were excluded leaving 6846 patients to be assessed for eligibility. Of these, 3752 patients were rejected because cancer was not found. Ten patients were subsequently diagnosed with cancer within the follow-up period resulting in an overall frequency of 0.15%. For group 1 and 2, the frequency was 0.04% and 0.10%, respectively. The sensitivity of the fast-track program was 99.67% and the negative predictive value was 99.73%.ConclusionThe frequency of missed cancer in a tertiary HNC center following the Danish fast track program is low.