Scientific and rigorous data registration of patients with gastric cancer is the cornerstone of high-quality surgical research on gastric cancer: lessons learned from the Dutch upper gastrointestinal cancer audit (DUCA)

The postoperative 30-day mortality and morbidity of gastric cancer surgery has markedly improved over the past years due to minimally invasive techniques, perioperative rehabilitation programs and centralization of care. However, there is still need for improvement as postoperative complications may have a serious negative impact on the efficacy of surgical treatment of gastric cancer. High-quality clinical research is a very important tool to analyze treatment outcomes and evaluate new treatment strategies. The meticulous registration of gastric cancer patient data is the basis of high-quality surgical research. In the past 11 years, the Dutch upper gastrointestinal cancer audit (DUCA) database has vast experience in data registration and maintenance of patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer. The effective measures it has taken in data registration, data quality control, data application and use, and data security have maintained quality at a high level. These data has been used for medical care quality monitoring and scientific research leading to a positive impact on the postoperative short-term outcomes of patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer. The work of DUCA may be a good incentive for the setup of population-based databases and clinical research in other countries.