Colon- and Esophageal-Cancer Patients Won’t Travel Far for Care
Colorectal cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, Oncology Nursing News, travel, treatment, distance, patients
A recent study published in the journal Oncology Nursing News states that the distance patients need to travel is a strong factor in whether they’ll receive care at high-volume centers for treatment of colorectal, esophageal, and pancreatic cancer. Apparently, “many” patients will not travel a long distance to receive treatment.
According to the article, “To examine whether the long distances patients may need to travel would act as a barrier to accessing high-volume centers, researchers studied discharge data from 1996-2006 of patients ages ≥18 years of age who were surgically treated for colorectal, esophageal, or pancreatic cancer.
“The results revealed that a shift from low-volume to high-volume centers occurred to varying degrees for esophageal, pancreatic, and colon cancer procedures,” the article continued. “The change was the greatest for esophageal and pancreatic cancer, which are less common than cancers of the colon and rectum. Furthermore, among the study population, travel distance increased for all patients, but more so for patients with less common cancers. Travel distance increased 72 percent for patients with esophageal cancer compared to 17 percent for patients with colon cancer.”
To read the Oncology Nursing News article, click here.