Association between cancer-specific adverse event triggers and mortality: A validation study

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Health Services Research
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Validated patient safety measures in clinical oncology are scarce.
• Efficient measurement instruments are needed to improve cancer care quality.
• This study addresses the need for reliable patient safety assessment in oncology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the validity of a novel patient safety measure.
• To examine the association between oncology-specific triggers and mortality.
• To leverage administrative claims data for patient safety evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective cohort study of 322,887 adult cancer patients (2008-2014).
• Identified 16 cancer-specific adverse event triggers using diagnosis and procedure codes.
• Compared one-year mortality rates between patients with and without triggers using logistic regression.

Main Results:

• Adverse event triggers were present in 19% of patients, most common in metastatic colorectal and lung cancers.
• Patients with triggers had significantly increased one-year mortality across all cancer types.
• Notably higher mortality was observed in nonmetastatic prostate and colorectal cancers with triggers.

Conclusions:

• The association between adverse event triggers and poor survival supports the tool's validity.
• A cancer-specific, administrative claims-based trigger tool can effectively identify patient safety risks.
• This approach offers a valuable method for monitoring and improving patient safety in oncology.