Quality gaps and comparative effectiveness in lung cancer staging and diagnosis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Guidelines recommend mediastinal lymph node sampling as the first invasive test in patients with suspected lung cancer with mediastinal lymphadenopathy without distant metastases, but there are no comparative effectiveness studies on how test sequencing affects outcomes. The objective was to compare practice patterns and outcomes of diagnostic strategies in patients with lung cancer.

Methods

The study included a retrospective cohort of 15,316 patients with lung cancer with regional spread without distant metastases in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results or Texas Cancer Registry Medicare-linked databases. If the first invasive test involved mediastinal sampling, patients were classified as receiving guideline-consistent care; otherwise, they were classi

SUBMITTER: Ost DE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4502720 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature