CT scan reporting practices often contribute to inconsistencies in pancreatic cancer staging and resectability assessment, but implementing synoptic reporting with standardized templates may provide a solution, a new study has found.
Dr. Lin Li, research fellow and project manager in the Cancer Research Program at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, along with co-authors who included radiologist Dr. Samantha Ellis from Alfred Health in Melbourne, assessed the baseline perceptions and satisfaction levels of Australian clinicians for CT reporting practices for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). They conducted their analysis prior to the implementation of synoptic reporting in the SCANPatient clinical trial.
Complete surgical removal of PDAC is central to all curative treatment approaches, yet this is only possible in patients technically amenable to resection. Therefore, an accurate assessment of whether patients are suitable for surgery is of paramount importance, they explained. The nationwide SCANPatient trial aims to test whether implementing a structured synoptic radiological report results in increased institutional accuracy in defining surgical resectability of nonmetastatic PDAC.
Stratification and treatment options for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. ECOG status = Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status. Source: Dr. Lin Li et al. Trials. 2024 Jun 17;25:388.
The researchers conducted a pre-intervention online survey between December 2023 and April 2024 among radiologists and hepatobiliary surgeons participating in the SCANPatient trial. They presented the results at the annual scientific meeting of the Royal Australasian and New Zealand College of Radiology (RANZCR 2025).
The survey assessed demographics, current CT scan reporting practices, satisfaction with anatomical detail discussion and documentation in multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings, and perceptions of synoptic reporting utility. Descriptive statistics (counts and percentages) were used to summarize respondent characteristics and survey responses.
The specific objectives of this baseline survey were to assess clinicians’ current satisfaction levels with anatomical details discussed and documented in MDT meetings and to evaluate clinicians’ perceptions of the potential utility of synoptic reporting in the assessment of PDAC. Another aim was to examine whether satisfaction with current CT scan reporting differs between radiologists and surgeons, and if the perceptions of the usefulness of synoptic reporting differ by years of specialist practice.
Summary of key findings
A total of 23 clinicians completed the survey: 13 surgeons and 10 radiologists, with 56.5% having ≥ 10 years of specialty practice. The response rate was 37.1%.
Respondents reported the most commonly used resectability classification systems for pancreatic cancer were those of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), with 7/23 (or 30.4%) clinicians using it in their MDT meetings, followed by the International Consensus 2017 (6/23, or 26.1%).
Of the 10 radiologists, nine had prior experience with synoptic reporting in other tumor types, with four using it regularly and five occasionally. Half of the radiologists had previously used (at least sometimes) a template report of some sort for non-metastatic PDAC. However, only three of them routinely included resectability status for PDAC in their reports.
Most respondents (59.1%) were “somewhat satisfied” with anatomical detail discussion in MDT meetings, and the radiologists had lower rates of satisfaction compared with surgeons (40% versus 75% somewhat satisfied), but the small sample size must be considered, the authors noted. Most clinicians (82.6%) perceived synoptic reporting as useful for PDAC assessment, with 90% of radiologists having prior synoptic reporting experience in other tumor types and 70% believing it would enhance reporting efficiency and accuracy.
Overall, these initial findings indicate that clinicians have moderate baseline satisfaction with current CT reporting practices. However, the study also demonstrates strong positive perceptions toward the utility of synoptic reporting, highlighting its potential to improve standardization of pancreatic cancer imaging communication in clinical practice, the authors concluded.
You can view the full RANZCR 2025 poster here. The co-authors were Drs. Ariadna Recasens, Liane Ioannou, Samantha Ellis, John Zalcberg, and Charles Pilgrim.
For more information on the SCANPatient trial, check out its webpage in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry.
