SPECC collaboration
SATC Center (SATCC) is the abbreviation for ”Store Adenomer og Tidlige Colorectale Cancere” which in English means Significant Polyps and Early Colo-Rectal Cancers (SPECC). The Danish SATCC was established by a generous donation from the Danish Cancer Society in 2013, and the SPECC initiative from Basingstoke, UK was established a few years later.
We have therefore initiated a collaboration between the two centers on our common goal: To develop and disseminate the best practice of handling these significant, but early neoplasms, which have become so common in the wake of the national screening programs.
The long term survival after timely treatment of early colorectal cancer is now more than 95 %. Having passed the point where survival is an important object for improvement, the focus is now on less invasive treatment, better post-treatment quality of life and lowering the costs of treatment. These goals demand better pre-treatment staging of neoplasms, better advanced transanal and endoscopic techniques and expert radiological and pathological evaluations. By a careful, multidisciplinary expert planning, many major surgical procedures can be avoided and more patients will receive optimised treatment at the first attempt.
The strategy for both centers is, through teaching and dissemination of the skills needed, to ensure a nationwide high quality of SPECC handling. The collaboration and dialog between the centers ensure updated state of the art protocols and efficient utilization of resources.
It is true to say that the SATC Center is the smaller partner in this collaboration, where the entire population of Denmark equals one of the UK regions covered by the SPECC workshop program. The sharing of faculty members therefore is of great advantage to the Danish SATC Center program.
Find useful information on: http://www.pelicancancer.org/our-courses/