Mid July, we received positive news from ZONMW that the project “Towards patient-led follow-up after curative treatment of stage II and III CRC”, led by Veerle Coupé (Amsterdam UMC) and Hans de Wilt (RadboudMC), was granted in the program “Zorgevaluatie en Gepast Gebruik”.

This project aims to develop a protocol for patient-centered follow-up for curatively treated stage II and III colorectal cancer patients, in which the intensity and setting of follow-up is adapted to the need and individual risk of the patient.

A cluster randomized study with a stepped-wedge design will be conducted in five hospitals to compare patient-led follow-up to current follow-up. In addition, decision-analytic modeling will be used to assess whether the follow-up can be further optimized in terms of cost-effectiveness by also taking an individual’s risk of recurrent disease into account.