Cancer Patient Survival Improvement Is Correlated With the Opening of a Community Cancer Center: Comparisons With Intramural and Extramural Benchmarks

Abstract

Purpose We sought to determine whether survival of patients managed at a large community hospital improved after an affiliated facility opened and its associated programs were initiated. Methods Survival data for patients with invasive cancer was obtained from the Hoag Hospital tumor registry for the successive periods 1986-1991 and for 1992-1999 for historical intramural comparisons; national Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program data for the same periods were used for contemporary and historical extramural comparisons. Results We observed survival improved significantly during 1992-1999 compared with 1986-1991 for all patients with invasive cancers (P < .0001), and specifically for cancers of the breast (P = .026), lung (P = .012), prostate (P < .0001), stomach (P = .006), pancreas (P = .0001), and oral cavity (P = .024), with strong trends for improved survival for leukemia (P = .051) and rectal cancer (P = .063). Relative 5-year survival rates increased from 63% during 1986-1991 to 71% during 1992-1999, and were higher for 22 of 24 tumor types during the more recent period (P < .0001). Compared with SEER data, Hoag relative survival for all patients with invasive cancer was 63% versus 58% during 1986-1991, and 71% versus 64% during 1992-1999. Survival for Hoag patients was better than SEER rates for only 50% of malignancies (12 of 24) during 1986-1991 compared with 87% (21 of 24) during 1992-1999 (P = .013). In the most common tumor types, there were substantial improvements in survival for patients with regional disease at diagnosis. Improved survival was associated with earlier diagnosis and increased use of systemic treatment and combined modality therapy. Conclusion Patients with invasive cancer who were treated at an integrated community cancer center had better survival compared with historical survival and patients from the SEER registry. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the accelerated dissemination of new information resulted in earlier adoption of improved screening, diagnostic, and multidisciplinary treatment approaches, leading to higher survival rates.