Anal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ASCC) is an uncommon cancer with an incidence rate between 1 and 2 per 100,000 per year. The incidence of ASCC is increasing rapidly, with an overall 63% increase in incidence rate of ASCC in the UK since the 1990’s. However, there is much discrepancy in best surgical practice for the treatment and prevention of ASCC.
Cancer Research UK states that 91% of ASCC cases in 2015 were preventable by the treatment and identification of high-grade Anal Intraepithelial Neoplasia (AIN) (that can progress to ASCC), and ASCC itself also has excellent outcomes if identified early. The limiting factor to providing good quality evidence and clinical guidelines is the large sample size required to observe the relationship between AIN transformation and ASCC. This is yet to be achieved.
mASCARA, Multinational Anal Squamous cell CArcinoma: Registry and Audit, hopes to achieve this and will be the first multinational ASCC Registry and Audit. It aims to be internationally adopted by all centres managing ASCC and AIN. As ASCC is a rare cancer, it is difficult to be able to perform any definitive scientific studies without collaboration as the patient numbers are too small nationally to be statistically significant. Collaborations between other high volume centres in the UK, Europe, USA and Australia, who are willing to contribute both retrospective and prospective data to create an international Registry, have already been established.
An information portal and website will be created and advertised internationally at conferences and to service users and patients.
