In pursuit of excellence for patients with cancer: the Scottish Cancer Therapy Network model

The Scottish Cancer Therapy Network (SCTN) was created against a background of rising concerns about perceived Variation in the quality of care availa ble to patients with cancer, SCTN has established itself as a major organiz ation with the necessary recognition and infrastructure to provide leadersh ip, support and impetus in the field of clinical guidelines, clinical audit and clinical trials of cancer therapy in Scotland. Since being formed in 1 993, SCTN has been instrumental in the development of three evidence-based, clinical guidelines and in the completion of detailed, national, retrospec tive audits of the treatment of five major tumour sites. The infrastructure has been used successfully to support and encourage trial participation. C hallenges for the future are a re-orientation towards prospective audit, wi dening the constituency and sense of ownership of SCTN as a resource for pr actising clinicians, and further increasing recruitment into clinical trial s.