Fragmentation in specialist care and stage III colon cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patients with cancer frequently transition between different types of specialists and across care settings. This study explored how frequently the surgical and medical oncology care of stage III colon cancer patients occurred across more than 1 hospital and whether this was associated with mortality and costs.

Methods

This was a retrospective Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare cohort study of 9075 stage III colon cancer patients diagnosed between 2000 and 2009 who had received both surgical and medical oncology care within 1 year of their diagnosis. Patients were assigned to the hospital at which they had undergone their cancer surgery and to their oncologist's primary hospital, and then they were characterized according to whether these hospital

SUBMITTER: Hussain T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4560997 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature