How to bridge the gap for rural cancer patients
FROM JAMA NETWORK OPEN
The researchers said this finding could be attributed to a few factors, including timely access to follow-up chemotherapy after patients’ first round of cancer treatment.
Although there were no significant survival differences for patients with hematologic malignancies, rural patients had slightly better OS if they had advanced indolent NHL or AML, but slightly worse OS if they had MM or advanced aggressive NHL.
Rural patients had slightly better cancer-specific survival if they had advanced indolent NHL but slightly worse cancer-specific survival if they had AML, MM, or advanced aggressive NHL.
The researchers said these findings suggest it is access to care, and not other characteristics, that drives the survival disparities typically observed between urban and rural cancer patients.
“If people diagnosed with cancer, regardless of where they live, receive similar care and have similar outcomes, then a reasonable inference is that the best way to improve outcomes for rural patients is to improve their access to quality care,” Dr. Unger said.
The National Cancer Institute and the HOPE Foundation supported the study. The researchers reported financial relationships with various pharmaceutical companies.
SOURCE: Unger JM et al. JAMA Network Open. 2018;1(4):e181235. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.1235.
