Cancer: A major public health problem in the United States.

According to the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, an estimated 1,688,780 new cases of cancer of any site will occur and an estimated 600,000 people will die of this disease annually.

Treatment of solid tumors is complex and usually combines surgery with other treatment modalities such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immune therapy, and targeted therapy. Treatment of hematological malignancies is increasingly complex. Supportive treatment is also integral to cancer treatment and management.

Using administrative claims databases, our research in the area of oncology focuses on comprehensive assessment of cancer prevalence and incidence, patient characteristics, treatment patterns, clinical outcomes and complications, adherence and persistence to treatment, health care utilization, and cost of care across all major types of solid tumors and hematologic cancers. Other avenues of investigation include the complex epidemiology and etiology of oncologic treatments with toxicity of various organ systems, such as cardiac and renal.

We carefully design studies and apply appropriate statistical methodology to limit the effects of bias on the validity of study results. In observational studies, selection bias is a major concern in evaluating associations between treatment regimens and risk of clinical outcomes, complications of treatment, adherence and persistence to treatment, health care utilizations and costs of care. Thus, we pay close attention to these concerns in our projects.

Questions about CDRG spearheading your next project? Contact us!