Table 1 Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics, by initial treatment strategy and contact nurse (CN) assignment
| Â | Initial treatment strategy | CN assignment | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|  | Total n = 2614 | Curative n = 877 (33.6%) | Palliative n = 1278 (48.9%) | No tumour-directed treatment n = 459 (17.6%) | p-value | Total n = 1256 | Yes n = 955 (76.0%) | No n = 301 (24.0%) | p-value |
Age, yrs. (mean ± SD) | 71.4 ± 11.5 | 67.8 ± 10.4 | 71.3 ± 11.5 | 78.7 ± 10.2 | < 0.001 | 72.6 ± 11.29 | 72.2 ± 11.0 | 73.9 ± 12.0 | 0.023 |
Men, n (%) | 1773 (67.8) | 614 (70.0) | 887 (69.4) | 272 (59.3) | < 0.001 | 835 (66.5) | 641 (67.1) | 194 (64.5) | 0.216 |
Women, n (%) | 841 (32.2) | 263 (30.0) | 391 (30.6) | 187 (40.7) | Â | 421 (33.5) | 314 (32.9) | 107 (35.5) | Â |
Survival time from diagnosis | n = 26051 |  |  |  |  | n = 12512 |  |  |  |
 Months (median, Q1–Q3) | 7.0 (2.0–16.0) | 15.0 (8.0–27.0) | 5.0 (2.0–11.0) | 1.5 (0.0–5.0) | < 0.001 | 4.0 (1.0–9.0) | 4.0 (2.0–9.0) | 3.0 (1.0–10.0) | 0.011 |
Initial treatment strategy |  |  |  |  |  | n = 12533 |  |  | < 0.001 |
 Curative | – | – | – | – |  | 277 (22.1) | 232 (24.3) | 45 (15.0) |  |
 Palliative | – | – | – | – |  | 708 (56.5) | 566 (59.4) | 142 (47.3) |  |
 No tumour-directed treatment | – | – | – | – |  | 268 (21.4) | 155 (16.3) | 113 (37.7) |  |
Histological type, n (%) | n = 25954 |  |  |  | < 0.001 | n = 12515 |  |  | 0.268 |
 Adenocarcinoma | 1993 (76.8) | 663 (75.9) | 967 (76.1) | 363 (80.3) |  | 946 (75.6) | 709 (74.6) | 237 (78.7) |  |
 Non-differentiated | 42 (1.6) | 10 (1.1) | 25 (2.0) | 7 (1.5) |  | 25 (2.0) | 21 (2.2) | 4 (1.3) |  |
 Squamous cell carcinoma | 430 (16.6) | 163 (18.7) | 224 (17.6) | 43 (9.5) |  | 214 (17.1) | 172 (18.1) | 42 (14.0) |  |
 Other | 130 (5.0) | 37 (4.2) | 54 (4.3) | 39 (8.6) |  | 66 (5.3) | 48 (5.1) | 18 (6.0) |  |
M stage at diagnosis, n (%) | n = 25866 |  |  |  | < 0.001 | n = 12417 |  |  | 0.320 |
 M0 | 1494 (57.8) | 835 (96.2) | 459 (36.1) | 200 (44.6) |  | 610 (49.2) | 469 (49.6) | 141 (47.8) |  |
 M1 | 1092 (42.2) | 33 (3.8) | 811 (63.9) | 248 (55.4) |  | 631 (50.8) | 477 (50.4) | 154 (52.2) |  |
Performance status, n (%) | n = 25018 |  |  |  | < 0.001 | n = 12479 |  |  | 0.090 |
 0 | 671 (26.8) | 410 (48.7) | 241 (19.7) | 20 (4.6) |  | 268 (21.5) | 209 (22.0) | 59 (19.8) |  |
 1 | 907 (36.3) | 340 (40.4) | 478 (39.0) | 89 (20.5) |  | 348 (27.9) | 264 (27.8) | 84 (28.2) |  |
 2 | 617 (24.7) | 81 (9.6) | 368 (30.0) | 168 (38.7) |  | 384 (30.8) | 303 (31.9) | 81 (27.2) |  |
 3 | 261 (10.4) | 11 (1.3) | 128 (10.4) | 122 (28.1) |  | 214 (17.2) | 152 (16.0) | 62 (20.8) |  |
 4 | 45 (1.8) | 0 (0.0) | 10 (0.8) | 35 (8.1) |  | 33 (2.6) | 21 (2.2) | 12 (4.0) |  |
Site of primary tumour | n = 261210 |  |  |  | < 0.001 | n = 125511 |  |  | 0.005 |
 Oesophageal cancer | 1505 (57.6) | 516 (58.8) | 814 (63.7) | 175 (38.2) |  | 738 (58.8) | 581 (60.9) | 157 (52.2) |  |
 Gastric cancer | 1107 (42.4) | 361 (41.2) | 463 (36.3) | 283 (61.8) |  | 517 (41.2) | 373 (39.1) | 144 (47.8) |  |