Older colorectal cancer patients on Medicare who saw their primary care physician more often were less likely to die from colorectal cancer and from other illnesses.
They were almost three times as likely to have been screened and more likely to be diagnosed early.
Researchers analyzed information in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Medicare–linked database for people diagnosed with colorectal cancer between 1994 and 2005 to look for links between primary care and outcomes after diagnosis.
They found that compared to colorectal cancer patients who never saw a primary care doctor or saw one only once, Medicare patients who visited their doctor 5 to 10 times in the 3 to 27 months before diagnosis were
- 16% less likely to die of colorectal cancer
- 35% more likely to be diagnosed early
- 6% less likely to die from any cause
- 2.6 times more likely to have been screened for colorectal cancer
Family physician Jeanne M. Ferrante, MD, MPH and her colleagues concluded,
Medicare beneficiaries with colorectal cancer have better outcomes if they have greater utilization of primary care before diagnosis. Revitalization of primary care in the United States may help strengthen the national efforts to reduce the burden of CRC.
SOURCE: Ferrante et al, Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 171 No. 19, October 24, 2011
Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results–Medicare–linked database
Leave a Reply
Your comments are welcome. However, specific medical advice will not be provided. Generic QUESTIONS can be directed to our Answer Line team at http://fightcolorectalcancer.org/awareness/answer-line or by calling us at 1-877-427-2111 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern time, Monday – Friday. We urge you to consult with a qualified physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions. Fight Colorectal Cancer is not responsible for the medical accuracy of any comments left by persons other than Fight Colorectal Cancer staff members. Fight Colorectal Cancer staff members monitor comments and may respond publicly where appropriate.
Please note that we automatically publish the name that you enter next to your post. Also note that our pages are automatically indexed by Google and other search engines, and your name may therefore appear in search results on those sites. So if you wish to remain anonymous please use a different name or enter 'Anon' as the name.
We regret that we are unable to privately answer questions left as comments. So please do not include your phone number, email or mailing address in the body of your comment.