Better Cancer Treatments may depend on Hospital Where Services are Received

Where you go for cancer treatment may make a difference on the outcome of your progress towards recovery.

A recent study of older patients with advanced head and neck cancers has found that where they were treated significantly influenced their survival. The study, led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published in the March 1 online edition of Cancer, found that patients who were treated at hospitals that saw a high number of head and neck cancers were 15 percent less likely to die of their disease as compared to patients who were treated at hospitals that saw a relatively low number of such cancers.

The study also found that such patients were 12 percent less likely to die of their disease when treated at a National Cancer Institute -designated cancer center.

"Where you're treated matters," said corresponding author Eduardo Méndez, M.D., an assistant member of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutch.

Méndez and colleagues have also hypothesized that patients with head and neck squamos cell carcinomas who were treated in highly populated hospitals were more likely to receive better therapy, relating to guidelines along with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

However, this was not the case.

According to an American Cancer Society estimate, 52,610 Americans were newly diagnosed with head and neck cancer in 2012. Many diagnosed with locally advanced disease that spread to the lymph nodes, which shows a greater risk of harm.

Unfortunately, despite the improved survival at high-volume hospitals, the proportion of patients who received multimodality therapy was similar, with 78 percent and 79 percent.