Table 5: Comparison of 5-year utilization rates for various therapies in British Columbia with optimal utilization*.
| Stage; % of cases |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of therapy | All | I | II | III | IV |
| Radiotherapy |
|||||
| BCCA data (within 5 yr) |
59 |
61 |
66 |
79 |
52 |
| Ideal (Foroudi et al.24) |
66 |
69 |
82 |
95 |
64 |
| Ideal (Delaney et al.25) |
83 |
84 |
84 |
91 |
47 |
| Chemotherapy† |
|||||
| BCCA data (within 5 yr) |
34 (adjusted: 39) |
16 |
59 |
72 |
49 |
| Ideal (Ng et al.26) |
59 (adjusted: 69) |
56 |
56 |
90 |
29 |
| Hormone therapy† |
|||||
| BCCA data (within 5 yr) |
61 (adjusted: 68) |
66 |
70 |
73 |
54 |
| Ideal (Fong et al.27) | 57 (adjusted: 67) |
NR | NR | NR | NR |
Note: BCCA = BC Cancer Agency, NR = not reported. *Optimal (ideal) rates of utilization are based on evidence-based estimates of needs. Details of how these estimates were obtained are outlined in the cited references. †For chemotherapy and hormone therapy, the “all stages” rates were adjusted to account for exclusion of in situ cases; the parenthetical values are these adjusted rates, for invasive cancers only. In particular, Fong and associates27 assumed that hormone therapy is not indicated for in situ breast cancer.