SEER Patterns of Care Quality of Care Study Diagnosis Year 2016

The objectives of the SEER Patterns of Care Study are to: 1) describe the use of adjuvant therapy, which will be verified with the treating physician or with a unified medical record; 2) characterize the practice patterns in different communities; 3) describe more completely the use of surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy in the treatment of specific cancers; 4) compare the patterns of treatment modalities over time and by age, sex, and race/ethnicity; 5) describe the types and effects of co-morbid conditions on treatment; 6) describe treatment by hospital characteristics: i.e. for profit vs. not for profit, teaching vs. non-teaching, physician specialty, etc., 7) describe the use of biomarkers and diagnostic tests and compare their use by demographic variables and geographic region; 8) provide additional data for analyses by linking POC data to SEER-Medicare files; 9) compare outcomes in community practices versus those for clinical trials; 10) address quality control issues related to routine data abstraction. This pattern of care study is undertaken to examine and characterize the cancer treatment practice patterns in different geographic areas of the United States. The cancer types to be investigated are corpus (Derived AJCC Stage I-IV, 7th edition), head and neck (Derived AJCC Stage I-IV and unstaged, 7th edition), and pancreatic cancer (Derived AJCC Stage I-IV and unstaged, 7th edition). Data will be collected for patients 20 years of age or older who were diagnosed in 2016 for each site. The sample consists of 320 patients randomly selected from all eligible cancer sites and histologies. Information on insurance status, hospital characteristics, and clinical trial participation will be collected for each patient. Site specific information including histology, topography, tumor size, and extension will be collected as appropriate for each cancer type. Treatment information including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal/immunotherapy therapy will be abstracted from the medical record. Information collected will be verified with the treating physician via office records or physician verification forms. Abstractors will travel to the medical facilities which reported each patient to review the medical chart when possible, but records may also be obtained via mail and fax. Data will be de-identified prior to submission, aggregated with data submitted by participating SEER registries, and analyzed by researchers at the National Cancer Institute.