|
||
 |
||
Geriatrics Expert Named
cancer research
| Physician Training, Education and Gender Affect Cancer Care Whether a woman receives radiation after breast cancer surgery may be associated with certain characteristics of her surgeon, including sex and medical training, according to a new study by researchers in the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Radiation after lumpectomy reduces breast cancer recurrence and is a standard of quality cancer care, but many patients never receive the treatment. Patient characteristics, such as race, age and distance from a radiation therapy facility, are known to be associated with receiving post-surgical radiation, but surgeon characteristics have not been investigated. The new study – led by Dawn Hershman, M.D., the Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology – analyzed data from 30,000 lumpectomy patients, including characteristics of the 4,453 surgeons who operated on these women. During the study years, from 1991 to 2002, about 75 percent of women received radiation after surgery. After adjusting for patient and tumor characteristics, the researchers found that women who received radiation were more likely to have had a surgeon who was female (79 percent vs. 73 percent), had an M.D. degree (75 percent vs. 68 percent with a D.O. degree), or who graduated from a medical school in the United States (75 percent vs. 70 percent for a foreign school graduate). Dr. Hershman says it is unclear why the differences exist. “There may be several factors contributing, including surgeon behavior, patient response, or surgeon-patient interactions,” she says, adding, “it is important to find what those factors are so we can improve quality of care.” The study was published in the Feb. 6 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. |
