Patients diagnosed with high-grade non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer are not receiving guideline-recommended care, according to an analysis of data from the SEER-Medicare Linked Database.
Using the guidelines offered by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Urological Association, the researchers found that only 1 patient received all recommended measures. When the researchers relaxed their definition of compliance (at least 1 cystoscopy, 1 cytology, and a single instillation of intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin), however, compliance rates rose to 37% on the patient level.
Somewhat surprisingly, the researchers found that a significant percentage of variation in the low compliance rate was attributable to the provider. Patient factors had very little impact on compliance rates.
The complete study is published online, July 11, 2011, in Cancer (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.26198/abstract).