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Breast, Colorectal and Prostate Cancer Screening for Cancer Survivors and Non-Cancer Patients in Community Practices

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ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

Cancer survivors have cancer surveillance and preventive screening needs that require monitoring. Little is known regarding their patterns of care in community primary care practices.

METHODS

Secondary analysis of 750 baseline patient surveys and medical record audits for patients ages 50+ years in 25 community-based primary care practices (N = 109 survivors and 641 noncancer patients).

RESULTS

Patient self-reported screening rates for breast cancer (72%), colorectal cancer (81%) and prostate cancer (77%) were higher for cancer survivors compared to noncancer patients (69%, 67%, 53%, respectively). Screening rates documented in the primary care records were lower for all cancers. Cancer survivors were more likely than others to report having been screened for colorectal cancer (P = 0.002) even after excluding colorectal cancer survivors from the analysis (P = 0.034). Male cancer survivors were more likely to report being screened for prostate cancer than those without cancer (P < 0.001), even after excluding prostate cancer survivors (P = 0.020). There were no significant differences in either self-reported or medical record report of breast cancer screening rates among cancer survivors and noncancer patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Cancer survivors were more likely to self-report receipt of cancer screening than noncancer patients. Medical record reports of cancer screening were lower than self-reports for cancer survivors and noncancer patients. Identifying factors that affect cancer screening among cancer survivors is important and has implications for intervention design.

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Funding/Acknowledgments

Data collection for this study was funded by a National Cancer Institute grant R01 CA112387 awarded to Dr. Crabtree. Additional support for this study was provided by a National Cancer Institute career development grant K01 CA131500 awarded to Dr. Hudson. This research was conducted in conjunction with the New Jersey Family Medicine Research Network (NJFMRN), a shared resource of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. It was also supported by the Cancer Institute of New Jersey’s Survey Research and Qualitative Methods Shared Resource.

Conflict of Interest

None disclosed.

Contributions of Authors

All authors participated in conceptualization of the study and interpretation of study results. Dr. Hudson and Ms. Hahn designed the study analyses and with Dr. Ohman-Strickland analyzed the data. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript and decided to submit this work for publication.

Support

This research was supported through grants from the National Cancer Institute (K01 CA131500 and R01 CA112387).

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Correspondence to Shawna V. Hudson PhD.

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Hudson, S.V., Hahn, K.A., Ohman-Strickland, P. et al. Breast, Colorectal and Prostate Cancer Screening for Cancer Survivors and Non-Cancer Patients in Community Practices. J GEN INTERN MED 24 (Suppl 2), 487–490 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-009-1036-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-009-1036-3

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