Open AccessReducing time from colon cancer surgery to initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy: pilot project
Author(s) -
Barbara Melosky,
Renata D’Alpino Peixoto,
Ahmer Karimuddin,
Manoj Raval,
Carl J. Brown,
Adam Meneghetti,
P. Terry Phang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
canadian journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.609
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1488-2310
pISSN - 0008-428X
DOI - 10.1503/cjs.000219
Subject(s) - medicine , colorectal cancer , adjuvant chemotherapy , chemotherapy , adjuvant , oncology , surgery , general surgery , cancer , breast cancer
Surgical resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy is the standard of care for patients with stage III colon cancer. To shorten the time interval between surgery and chemotherapy in patients with colon cancer, we instituted a standardized referral pathway. Evaluation of the intervention demonstrated that referring our patients with colon cancer to a medical oncologist earlier in the treatment process increased the number of patients in whom chemotherapy was initiated within 8 weeks compared with historical controls. These results support early medical oncology referral at institutions where delays in adjuvant chemotherapy initiation exist.