Findings from University of Cincinnati Yields New Findings on Liver Cancer (Opportunities to Improve Care of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Vulnerable…

Findings from University of Cincinnati Yields New Findings on Liver Cancer (Opportunities to Improve Care of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Vulnerable Patient Populations)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Fresh data on Oncology - Liver Cancer are presented in a new report. According to news originating from Cincinnati, Ohio, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with Medicaid or no health insurance have inferior survival compared with privately insured patients. Safety-net hospitals that care for these patients are often criticized for their inferior outcomes."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Cincinnati, "We hypothesized that HCC survival was related to appropriate surgical management. The American College of Surgeons National Cancer Database was queried for patients diagnosed with HCC (n = 111,481) from 1998 to 2010. Hospitals were stratified according to safety-net burden, defined as the percentage of patients with Medicaid or no insurance. The highest quartile, representing safety-net hospitals, was compared with lower-burden hospitals with regard to patient demographics, cancer presentation, surgical management, and survival. Patients at safety-net hospitals were less often white, had less income and education, but presented with similar stage HCC. Safety-net hospital patients were less likely to receive surgery (odds ratio 0.77; p< 0.01), and among curable patients (stages 1 and 2) who underwent surgical intervention, liver transplantation and resection were performed less often at safety-net hospitals than at other hospitals (50.7% vs 66.7%). Procedure-specific mortality rates were also higher at safety net hospitals (p < 0.01). However, multivariate analysis adjusting for cancer stage and type of surgery revealed similar survival for safety-net hospital patients who had surgery and survived for longer than 30 days (p = 0.73). Vulnerable patients with HCC are commonly treated at safety-net hospitals, are less likely to receive curative surgery, and have worse short-term outcomes. However, safety-net patients who can endure liver surgery have a similar prognosis as patients at nonsafety-net hospitals."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Providing equal access to surgery may improve survival for vulnerable populations of HCC patients."

For more information on this research see: Opportunities to Improve Care of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Vulnerable Patient Populations. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 2017;224(4):697-704. Journal of the American College of Surgeons can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, 360 Park Ave South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of the American College of Surgeons - www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-the-american-college-of-surgeons/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from S.A. Shah, University of Cincinnati, Sch Med, Dept. of Surg, CROSS, Cincinnati, OH, United States. Additional authors for this research include D.J. Hanseman, V.K. Dhar, D.E. Go, M.J. Edwards and R.S. Hoehn.

Keywords for this news article include: Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, North and Central America, Medicaid, Epidemiology, Health Policy, Liver Cancer, Carcinomas, Hospital, Oncology, Surgery, University of Cincinnati.

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