[Uncertainty in decision-making during multidisciplinary team meetings for colorectal cancer].

Abstract

During multidisciplinary team meetings, treatment plans are discussed for patients with colorectal cancer. Guidelines and protocols guide these decisions, but these are also dependent on the perception of the treatment outcomes by the involved specialists. With the increasing treatment options for increasingly older patients with more comorbidities, predicting outcomes for specific subgroups becomes more challenging. In a survey pertaining to treatment outcomes, we found that surgeons' estimations are not very accurate, especially not for specific risk groups. The limited accuracy of predicted outcomes affects decisions during the multidisciplinary team meetings and during the shared decision-making process in the outpatient clinic. Utilizing existing data-driven as well as innovative AI-enhanced methods to predict outcomes, can help to better inform patients and make both the multidisciplinary team meetings and the shared decision-making more precise.