How Collaboration Between Surgeons and Medical Oncologists Affects Outcomes for Patients with Pancreatic Cancer

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Health Services Research
• Surgical Outcomes

Background:

• Provider collaboration, measured by patient sharing, can indicate improved clinical outcomes.
• The study investigates the link between surgeon-medical oncologist collaboration and pancreatic cancer (PC) patient survival and healthcare spending.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the association between surgeon and medical oncologist collaboration and pancreatic cancer patient survival.
• To assess the impact of this collaboration on direct medical spending for Medicare beneficiaries.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the SEER-Medicare linked database for PC patients undergoing resection (2014-2019).
• Defined high collaboration as the 95th percentile of patients shared between surgeon-medical oncologist pairs.
• Employed Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, cause-specific hazard modeling, and quantile regression for spending analysis.

Main Results:

• High collaboration was associated with a significant increase in five-year overall survival rates (23.7% vs. 17.3%).
• PC mortality hazards decreased with high collaboration, even when stratified by age, stage, and hospital volume.
• No significant difference in one- and six-month direct medical spending was observed based on collaboration levels.

Conclusions:

• Increased patient sharing between surgeons and medical oncologists, a proxy for collaboration, correlates with reduced mortality in PC patients.
• This collaboration does not lead to higher direct medical expenditures among Medicare beneficiaries.
• Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms linking collaboration to care delivery, costs, and outcomes.