C C Earle

..A systematic review was conducted to evaluate the literature regarding the impact of follow-up on colorectal cancer patient survival and, in a second phase, recommendations were developed...

..To explore potential indicators of the quality of end-of-life services for cancer patients that could be monitored using existing administrative data...

..This article reviews the elements of the proposed survivorship care plan and discusses areas of research and development needed to make them part of standard oncology practice...

..The optimal follow-up strategy for colorectal cancer is unknown...

..To examine influenza vaccination use in patients undergoing chemotherapy for advanced cancer...

..To assess the quality of preventive health care, the role of health care participation, and the patient and provider characteristics associated with high-quality care for breast cancer survivors...

..To evaluate the use and effectiveness of cancer-directed therapy in elderly patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC)...

..e., better outcomes). We examined associations between physician specialty and outcomes in a population-based cohort of elderly ovarian cancer surgery patients...

..To evaluate measures that could use existing administrative data to assess the intensity of end-of-life cancer care...

..To characterize the aggressiveness of end-of-life cancer treatment for older adults on Medicare, and its relationship to the availability of healthcare resources...

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..Linking administrative data to registry data, as in the creation of the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) and Medicare data set, can provide the ability to infer the occurrence of relapse in selected situations...

..The IOM stated that survivorship care plans 'have strong face validity and can reasonably be assumed to improve care unless and until evidence accumulates to the contrary.'..

..Special attention and education are needed to ensure that survivors receive optimal medical services...

..To compare the effectiveness of chemotherapy given to elderly patients in routine practice for stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with the efficacy observed in randomized trials...

..To determine the prevalence and factors associated with chemotherapy use in elderly patients presenting with advanced lung cancer...

..We critically reviewed the CUA literature and its role in informing clinical oncology practice, research priorities, and policy...

..To determine the extent to which unexplained variation in the use of chemotherapy for advanced lung cancer is due to access to oncologists' services as opposed to treatment decisions made after seeing an oncologist...

..To assess the accuracies of different techniques for combining published survival curves, for use in disease modeling applications...

..Continued trials to find and confirm an effective adjuvant strategy are warranted...

..Although generally well-adjusted, a subset of cancer survivors have been observed to experience ongoing psychological distress. There has been little study of mental health care utilization among cancer survivors, however...

..We suggest that as different branches of investigation develop their own literature and methodology-in effect, outgrowing the generic label of outcomes research-they become identified by separate, more precise terms...

..To evaluate the cost-effectiveness (CE) of new combined modality strategies in patients with stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)...

..The lack of difference in outcome for patients with low and high TS receiving chemotherapy suggests that high TS levels may predict greater benefit from adjuvant treatment...

..Marital status has been implicated as a prognostic factor in bladder cancer survival. However, few studies have explored potential mechanisms through which this might occur...

..Failing to meet the benchmark of 12 lymph nodes in resection specimens is an indication for adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II colon cancer...

..Recent studies have examined the addition of docetaxel to fluorouracil and cisplatin in advanced esophagogastric cancer...

..Targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor and angiogenesis have proven useful strategies against metastatic colorectal cancer. The benefit of combining inhibitors of both pathways is unknown...

..Assessing the value of these treatments is compromised by a paucity of data on the impact of recurrence on economic costs and survival. The purpose of this study was to shed light on these issues...

..As cancer patients transition from treatment to survivorship, the responsibility of primary care providers (PCPs) versus oncology specialists is unclear...

..The objective of this study was to examine the utilization patterns of palliative RT among elderly patients with Stage IV NSCLC and, in particular, to identify factors associated with its use...

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..Referring physicians and treating specialists must ensure that elderly patients are not deprived of the opportunity to consider all of their treatment options...

..Administrative claims databases linked to tumor registry data provide an excellent opportunity for studying the follow-up care of cancer patients...

..Although hospice care can alleviate suffering at the end of life for patients with cancer, it remains underutilized, particularly by African Americans and Hispanics...

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..Economic modeling can be used to explore the potential of such novel therapies and to inform clinical trial design...

..To explore the mix of physician specialties that long-term survivors visit and how the mix relates to preventive care...

..Disparities in cancer survival may be related to differences in stage. Segregation may be associated with disparities in stage, particularly for cancers for which screening promotes survival...

..The objective of this study was to assess stakeholder acceptability of QIs of end-of-life (EOL) care that potentially were measurable from population-based administrative health databases...

..Chemotherapy with gemcitabine is the standard first-line treatment. In a Phase II trial at one academic cancer center, the clinical safety and activity of combining gemcitabine and docetaxel were assessed...

..A recent trial reported a moderate antitumor activity for gemcitabine among Asian patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. This led to our examination of the efficacy and tolerability of the drug in a population of U.S. patients...

..Questions have existed as to whether residential segregation is a mediator of racial/ethnic disparities in breast cancer care and breast cancer mortality, or has a differential effect by race/ethnicity...

..Our study examines the relationship between the percentage of black patients treated at a hospital to determine whether it affects the likelihood of obtaining cancer-directed surgery for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)...

..Whether the concept of overly aggressive treatment represents a quality-of-care issue that is acceptable to all involved stakeholders is an open question...

..The incidence of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) among the elderly can be expected to grow as the population continues to age. However, data on current treatment practices and costs for this form of cancer are sparse...

..One category of outcomes amenable to research using Medicare claims is complications of cancer treatments: the unintentional, adverse side effects or sequelae of interventions used to treat or palliate cancer patients...

..Unfortunately, the outcomes associated with such delays are largely unreported, possibly because delay is complex to define and difficult to measure...

..Using administrative data is an efficient, population-based method to monitor quality of care which can compliment other methods, such as qualitative and purposefully collected clinical data...

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..To make recommendations on the use of neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy in addition to surgery in patients with resectable gastric cancer (T1-4, N1-2, M0)...

..We conducted a multicenter, phase II study to examine the combination of capecitabine and thalidomide (Cape/Thal) in patients with refractory metastatic CRC...

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..When used as a single-agent, a tri-weekly schedule may be preferable for this patient population...

..They are more likely not to have surgery recommended, and more likely to refuse surgery. Additional research should focus on the physician-patient encounter as a potential source of racial disparities...

..Our findings can be used as a baseline against which the benefits of new therapies can be compared...

..We investigated racial disparities in access to surgical evaluation, receipt of surgery, and survival among elderly patients with locoregional esophageal cancer...

..We prospectively examined the psychosocial, occupational and economic impact of caring for a person with a terminal illness...

..Providers who were more generously reimbursed, however, prescribed more-costly chemotherapy regimens to metastatic breast, colorectal, and lung cancer patients...

..To investigate the combination of erlotinib, capecitabine, and oxaliplatin in patients who were previously treated for metastatic colorectal cancer...

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..We aimed to develop and validate a simple risk score for surgical mortality that could be applied to administrative data...

..The number, nature, and costs of serious adverse effects experienced by younger women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer outside of clinical trials are unknown...

..4 months. We conclude that while the combination of irinotecan and cisplatin may have activity in aggressive neuroendocrine tumor subtypes, this combination is inactive in patients with well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors...

..We sought to study the receipt of PMRT in elderly women in this period, using a population-based cohort of women with breast cancer...

..We sought to study the effect of distance to the nearest radiation treatment facility on the use of postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) in elderly women...

..Whether these results apply to other cancer types is unknown but worthy of further study...

..To fill this void, our study uses population-based data to evaluate longer-term treatment patterns, outcomes and costs among elderly Medicare beneficiaries following their diagnosis of CML...