Table 4.
Characteristics of physicians practicing in participating CanCORS hospitals/facilities who cared for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) in the last 12 months*
| Variable | Radiation oncologists N = 1,436 |
Medical oncologists N = 3,281 |
Surgeons N = 4,366 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of CRC patients treated/evaluated in past month (median) | 3 | 10 | 3 |
| Hospital/practice is part of a Community Clinical Oncology Program | 40% | 32% | 31% |
| Practice at a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center | 23% | 22% | 29% |
| In practice affiliated with a National Comprehensive Cancer Network | 22% | 22% | 25% |
| Board certified | 94% | 84% | 90% |
| Involved in teaching medical students/residents | 38% | 53% | 53% |
| Attend multidisciplinary meeting to discuss cancer care (e.g. tumor boards) at least weekly | 82% | 67% | 36% |
| Do not attend multidisciplinary meeting to discuss cancer care | 0% | 2% | 5% |
| Multidisciplinary meetings involve: | |||
| A pretreatment planning function | 86% | 77% | 73% |
| Includes evaluation/review of treatment decisions already made | 92% | 86% | 85% |
| Reviews all participants’ cases | 38% | 41% | 41% |
| Reviews only challenging, unusual or controversial cases | 58% | 61% | 50% |
| Reviews a variety of cancer cases | 91% | 83% | 82% |
| Serves as a teaching session only, without review of cases | 11% | 14% | 9% |
*
These are not necessarily the physicians who cared for the rectal cancer population in this study. Rather, the sampling frame included providers who cared for patients in the overall CanCORS initiative.