Budget Impact Analysis of a Breast Rapid Diagnostic Unit

Background: The Odette Cancer Centre’s recent implementation of a rapid diagnostic unit (RDU) for breast lesions has significantly decreased wait times to diagnosis. However, the economic impact of the unit remains unknown. This project defined the development and implementation costs and the operational costs of a breast RDU in a tertiary care facility. Methods: From an institutional perspective, a budget impact analysis identified the direct costs associated with the breast RDU. A base-case model was also used to calculate the cost per patient to achieve a diagnosis. Sensitivity analyses computed costs based on variations in key components. Costs are adjusted to 2015 valuations using health care–specific consumer price indices and are reported in Canadian dollars. Results: Initiation cost for the RDU was $366,243. The annual operational cost for support staff was$111,803. The average per-patient clinical cost for achieving a diagnosis was $770. Sensitivity analyses revealed that, if running at maximal institutional capacity, the total annual clinical cost for achieving a diagnosis could range between$136,080 and $702,675. Conclusions: Establishment and maintenance of a breast rdu requires significant investment to achieve reductions in time to diagnosis. Expenditures ought to be interpreted in the context of institutional patient volumes and trade-offs in patient-centred outcomes, including lessened patient anxiety and possibly shorter times to definitive treatment. Our study can be used as a resource-planning tool for future rdus in health care systems wishing to improve diagnostic efficiency

Locally advanced breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and adjuvant radiotherapy: a retrospective cohort analysis

Abstract Background Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is increasingly used to treat locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Improved response to NAC correlates with better survival outcomes. The dual purpose of this study is to report recurrence and survival outcomes for LABC patients treated with NAC, surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy and to correlate these outcomes with tumour response after NAC using multiple response assessment methods. Methods All LABC patients treated for curative intent with NAC, surgery, and adjuvant radiotherapy at our institute between January 2009 and December 2014 were included for analysis. NAC was mostly anthracycline and taxane-based; radiotherapy consisted of 50 Gy to the breast/chest wall and regional lymph nodes. Response to NAC was categorized using synoptic pathology reports, modified-RECIST and Chevallier scores. Survival curves were generated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. Results The cohort included 103 patients nearly equally divided between Stage II (n = 53) and Stage III (n = 50). Rates of locoregional control (LRC), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and overall survival (OS) were 99, 98, and 100% at 1 year and 89, 69 and 77% at 5 years, respectively. Responses to NAC did not correlate with LRC (p > 0.05) but did correlate with RFS and OS (p < 0.05), except that the Chevallier score did not predict RFS (p = 0.06). Using bivariate Cox modeling tumour size before (p = 0.003) and after (p < 0.001) NAC, stage group (p = 0.05), and response assessed by synoptic pathology (p = 0.05), modified-RECIST (p = 0.001), and Chevallier score (p = 0.015) all predicted for RFS. No factors predicted for LRC. Conclusion Pathologic response by all tested methods correlated with improved survival but were not associated with decreased LRC

Does early palliative identification improve the use of palliative care services?

PURPOSE:To evaluate whether the early identification of patients who may benefit from palliative care impacts on the use of palliative, community and acute-based care services. METHODS:Between 2014 and 2017, physicians from eight sites were encouraged to systematically identify patients who were likely to die within one year and would were thought to benefit from early palliative care. Patients in the INTEGRATE Intervention Group were 1:1 matched to controls selected from provincial healthcare administrative data using propensity score-matching. The use of palliative care, community-based care services (home care, physician home visit, and outpatient opioid use) and acute care (emergency department, hospitalization) was each evaluated within one year after the date of identification. The hazard ratio (HR) in the Intervention Group was calculated for each outcome. RESULTS:Of the 1,185 patients in the Intervention Group, 951 (80.3%) used palliative care services during follow-up, compared to 739 (62.4%) among 1,185 patients in the Control Group [HR of 1.69 (95% CI 1.56 to 1.82)]. The Intervention Group also had higher proportions of patients who used home care [81.4% vs. 55.2%; HR 2.07 (95% CI 1.89 to 2.27)], had physician home visits [35.5% vs. 23.7%; HR 1.63 (95% CI 1.46 to 1.92)] or had increased outpatient opioid use [64.3% vs. 52.1%); HR 1.43 (95% CI 1.30 to 1.57]. The Intervention Group was also more likely to have a hospitalization that was not primarily focused on palliative care (1.42 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.58)) and an unplanned emergency department visit for non-palliative care purpose (1.47 (95% CI 1.32 to 1.64)). CONCLUSION:Physicians actively identifying patients who would benefit from palliative care resulted in increased use of palliative and community-based care services, but also increased use of acute care services

Patient and provider experiences with active surveillance: A scoping review.

Active surveillance (AS) represents a fundamental shift in managing select cancer patients that initiates treatment only upon disease progression to avoid overtreatment. Given uncertain outcomes, patient engagement could support decision-making about AS. Little is known about how to optimize patient engagement for AS decision-making. This scoping review aimed to characterize research on patient and provider communication about AS, and associated determinants and outcomes.MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library were searched from 2006 to October 2016. English language studies that evaluated cancer patient or provider AS views, experiences or behavioural interventions were eligible. Screening and data extraction were done in duplicate. Summary statistics were used to describe study characteristics and findings.A total of 2,078 studies were identified, 1,587 were unique, and 1,243 were excluded based on titles/abstracts. Among 344 full-text articles, 73 studies were eligible: 2 ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), 4 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), 6 renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and 61 prostate cancer. The most influential determinant of initiating AS was physician recommendation. Others included higher socioeconomic status, smaller tumor size, comorbid disease, older age, and preference to avoid adverse treatment effects. AS patients desired more information about AS and reassurance about future treatment options, involvement in decision-making and assessment of illness uncertainty and supportive care needs during follow-up. Only three studies of prostate cancer evaluated interventions to improve AS communication or experience.This study revealed a paucity of research on AS communication for DCIS, RCC and CLL, but generated insight on how to optimize AS discussions in the context of routine care or clinical trials from research on AS for prostate cancer. Further research is needed on AS for patients with DCIS, RCC and CLL, and to evaluate interventions aimed at patients and/or providers to improve AS communication, experience and associated outcomes

A priori prediction of breast cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy using quantitative ultrasound, texture derivative and molecular subtype

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the performances of the tumor response prediction prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy based on quantitative ultrasound, tumour core-margin, texture derivative analyses, and molecular parameters in a large cohort of patients (n = 208) with locally advanced and earlier-stage breast cancer and combined them to best determine tumour responses with machine learning approach. Two multi-features response prediction algorithms using a k-nearest neighbour and support vector machine were developed with leave-one-out and hold-out cross-validation methods to evaluate the performance of the response prediction models. In a leave-one-out approach, the quantitative ultrasound-texture analysis based model attained good classification performance with 80% of accuracy and AUC of 0.83. Including molecular subtype in the model improved the performance to 83% of accuracy and 0.87 of AUC. Due to limited number of samples in the training process, a model developed with a hold-out approach exhibited a slightly higher bias error in classification performance. The most relevant features selected in predicting the response groups are core-to-margin, texture-derivative, and molecular subtype. These results imply that that baseline tumour-margin, texture derivative analysis methods combined with molecular subtype can potentially be used for the prediction of ultimate treatment response in patients prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Identifying opportunities to support patient-centred care for ductal carcinoma in situ: qualitative interviews with clinicians

Background Women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) report poor patient-clinician communication, and long-lasting confusion and anxiety about their treatment and prognosis. Research shows that patient-centred care (PCC) improves patient experience and outcomes. Little is known about the clinician experience of delivering PCC for DCIS. This study characterized communication challenges faced by clinicians, and interventions they need to improve PCC for DCIS. Methods Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit Canadian clinicians by specialty, gender, years of experience, setting, and geographic location. Qualitative interviews were conducted by telephone. Data were analyzed using constant comparison. Findings were mapped to a cancer-specific, comprehensive PCC framework to identify opportunities for improvement. Results Clinicians described approaches they used to address the PCC domains of fostering a healing relationship, exchanging information, and addressing emotions, but do not appear to be addressing the domains of managing uncertainty, involving women in making decisions, or enabling self-management. However, many clinicians described challenges or variable practices for all PCC domains but fostering a healing relationship. Clinicians vary in describing DCIS as cancer based on personal beliefs. When exchanging information, most find it difficult to justify treatment while assuring women of a good prognosis, and feel frustrated when women remain confused despite their efforts to explain it. While they recognize confusion and anxiety among women, clinicians said that patient navigators, social workers, support groups and high-quality information specific to DCIS are lacking. Despite these challenges, clinicians said they did not need or want communication interventions. Conclusions Findings represent currently unmet opportunities by which to help clinicians enhance PCC for DCIS, and underscore the need for supplemental information and supportive care specific to DCIS. Future research is needed to develop and test communication interventions that improve PCC for DCIS. If effective and widely implemented, this may contribute to improved care experiences and outcomes for women diagnosed with and treated for DCIS.Medicine, Faculty ofNon UBCSurgery, Department ofReviewedFacult

COVID-19 pandemic impact on the potential exacerbation of screening mammography disparities: A population-based study in Ontario, Canada

Strategies to ramp up breast cancer screening after COVID-19 require data on the influence of the pandemic on groups of women with historically low screening uptake. Using data from Ontario, Canada, our objectives were to 1) quantify the overall pandemic impact on weekly bilateral screening mammography rates (per 100,000) of average-risk women aged 50–74 and 2) examine if COVID-19 has shifted any mammography inequalities according to age, immigration status, rurality, and access to material resources. Using a segmented negative binomial regression model, we estimated the mean change in rate at the start of the pandemic (the week of March 15, 2020) and changes in weekly trend of rates during the pandemic period (March 15—December 26, 2020) compared to the pre-pandemic period (January 3, 2016—March 14, 2020) for all women and for each subgroup. A 3-way interaction term (COVID-19*week*subgroup variable) was added to the model to detect any pandemic impact on screening disparities. Of the 3,481,283 mammograms, 8.6 % (n = 300,064) occurred during the pandemic period. Overall, the mean weekly rate dropped by 93.4 % (95 % CI 91.7 % – 94.8 %) at the beginning of COVID-19, followed by a weekly increase of 8.4 % (95 % CI 7.4 % – 9.4 %) until December 26, 2020. The pandemic did not shift any disparities (all interactions p > 0.05) and that women who were under 60 or over 70, immigrants, or with a limited access to material resources had persistently low screening rate in both periods. Interventions should proactively target these underserved populations with the goals of reducing advanced-stage breast cancer presentations and mortality

Capturing the True Cost of Breast Cancer Treatment: Molecular Subtype and Stage-Specific per-Case Activity-Based Costing

Background: Breast cancer (BC) treatment is rapidly evolving with new and costly therapeutics. Existing costing models have a limited ability to capture current treatment costs. We used an Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method to determine a per-case cost for BC treatment by stage and molecular subtype. Methods: ABC was used to proportionally integrate multidisciplinary evidence-based patient and provider treatment options for BC, yielding a per-case cost for the total duration of treatment by stage and molecular subtype. Diagnostic imaging, pathology, surgery, radiation therapy, systemic therapy, inpatient, emergency, home care and palliative care costs were included. Results: BC treatment costs were higher than noted in previous studies and varied widely by molecular subtype. Cost increased exponentially with the stage of disease. The per-case cost for treatment (2023C$) for DCIS was C$ 14,505, and the mean costs for all subtypes were C$39,263, C$ 76,446, C$97,668 and C$ 370,398 for stage I, II, III and IV BC, respectively. Stage IV costs were as high as C$516,415 per case. When weighted by the proportion of molecular subtype in the population, case costs were C$ 31,749, C$66,758, C$ 111,368 and C$ 289,598 for stage I, II, III and IV BC, respectively. The magnitude of cost differential was up to 10.9 times for stage IV compared to stage I, 4.4 times for stage III compared to stage I and 35.6 times for stage IV compared to DCIS. Conclusion: The cost of BC treatment is rapidly escalating with novel therapies and increasing survival, resulting in an exponential increase in treatment costs for later-stage disease. We provide real-time, case-based costing for BC treatment which will allow for the assessment of health system economic impacts and an accurate understanding of the cost-effectiveness of screening