Saturday, May 10, 2014

For melanoma....I've said it before..."Go where they KNOW!!!"

In everything, really.  Get yourself a specialist!!!!  And, perhaps just as importantly, a specialist who does a lot of the thing you need them to do for you.  Wouldn't you rather hire the plumber who puts in lots of bathroom toilets to fix yours, rather than the one who predominantly puts in septic systems????

Hospital Case Volume is Associated with Improved Survival for Patients with Metastatic Melanoma.
Huo, et al.  American Journal of Clinical Oncology.  April 2014

Linked databases were used to identify patients aged 65 and older diagnosed with metastatic melanoma between 2000 and 2009.  Claims data was used to determine cancer treatment variation by hospital case volume. Of 1,438 patients, 42.6% were treated in low-volume hospitals, and 33.3% were treated in high volume hospitals.  "For patients diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, being treated in a high-volume hospital was associated with an improvement in survival and lower utilization of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy."

So what this tells me is that at high volume facilities....they know better how to treat melanoma...with fewer unneeded scans, less use of ineffective radiation and chemo treatments, and better outcomes!  Please!!! If at all possible, get yourself a melanoma specialist who works at a facility that treats lots of patients with melanoma. - c

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