Who we are

The Victorian Lung Cancer Registry (VLCR) is a clinical quality registry, which collects information about diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of individuals diagnosed with lung cancer in Victoria. The Registry is managed by the Cancer Research Program part of  Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University.

The VLCR was established in 2011 with funding from the Victorian Cancer Agency.  The Registry was established with a multidisciplinary governance structure, including engagement from consumers and was tasked with defining what diagnostic and treatment paradigms constituted evidence-based, best practice for patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer.  The VLCR complies with the framework developed by the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) for Clinical Quality Registries (CQRs).

The Registry has continued to mature since 2011 and now collects data for approximately 85% of all new lung cancer cases in Victoria. In 2021-22, the VLCR has expanded to include Royal Hobart Hospital and Launceston Hospital.  Ethics approval has been awarded to recruit hospitals in the ACT and South Australia.

Our purpose

The main aim of the VLCR is to monitor the patterns of care and outcomes of individuals diagnosed with lung cancer in contributing public and private hospitals. The Registry provides population-based information on the patterns of care for people diagnosed with lung cancer and assesses whether there is variation in health-related quality of life and survival following diagnosis of lung cancer across Victoria.

The VLCR monitors a suite of quality indicators (QIs) that provide the means to measure the real-world implementation of agreed diagnostic, management, and treatment pathways, in order to assess their relationship with both clinical and patient-reported outcomes. Subsequently, this enables the identification of patterns of care and/or specific practices associated with better outcomes attributable to improved compliance with best practice guidelines for the management of lung cancer.

A minimum dataset and consensus set of clinical QIs spanning the spectrum of care from diagnosis to end-of-life care have been developed, and are used to provide risk-adjusted benchmarked reports to measure compliance with best practice.

Why participate

By participating and allowing information about your diagnosis, treatment and health outcomes to be collected by the VLCR, you are contributing to the improvement of the quality of care and outcomes for patients diagnosed with lung cancer in the future.

The VLCR is an opt-out registry which holds participant discretion and privacy with the utmost regard. We are committed to maintaining participant autonomy and confidentiality at all times. Participants wishing to remove consent to participate in the registry can do as at any time.