Use of a national registry to define a composite quality metric for rectal cancer

Quality assessment in oncologic surgery has traditionally involved reporting discrete metrics that may be difficult for patients and referring providers to interpret. We define a composite quality metric (CQM) for resection in rectal cancer. We queried the National Cancer Database to identify patients undergoing low anterior resection for clinical stage II-III rectal adenocarcinoma between 2010 and 2017. CQM was defined as appropriate neoadjuvant therapy, margin-negative resection, appropriate lymph node assessment, postoperative length of stay (LOS)