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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Am J Surg. 2016 Jan 9;212(2):297–304. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2015.10.030

Table 4.

Adherence to cancer-specific process of care guidelines in non-Hispanic White and American Indian/Alaska Native patients.

CANCER-SPECIFIC PROCESS MEASURES a Percent adherence
in NHW b, %
Percent adherence
in AI/AN c, %
p-value d

BREAST n = 801 n =44

Preoperative core needle biopsy 94.3 81.4 0.004
Hormone receptor status reported 99.1 91.9 0.008
Lymph node evaluation (invasive cancer) 88.1 84.9 0.58
ALND e for node-positive mastectomy patients 74.1 73.3 0.58

Mean adherence across breast cancer
measures f (95% CI)
92.0%
(90.8%, 93.2%)
86.0%
(78.5%, 93.5%)
0.13 g

COLON n = 3,037 n = 45

≥12 nodes evaluated 88.2 79.1 0.09
Bowel prep before surgery 98.0 100.0 0.68
Anastomosis tested 61.2 68.4 0.41
Negative resection margins 95.9 95.6 0.71

Mean adherence across colon cancer
measures f (95% CI)
83.7%
(83.0% – 84.4%)
83.7%
(77.0% – 90.4%)
0.79 g

LUNG n = 489 n = 11

Multidisciplinary evaluation before surgery 65.7 83.3 0.67
Preoperative PFT h documented 87.1 100.0 0.37
≥3 lymph node basins sampled 83.3 100.0 0.41
Smoking cessation counseling (if current smoker) 69.8 50.0 0.37

Mean adherence across lung cancer
measures f (95% CI)
80.9%
(78.4% – 83.5%)
87.1%
(74.5% – 99.7%)
0.68 g

PROSTATE n = 593 n = 14

PSAi documented preoperatively 98.5 100.0 0.81
Potency documented preoperatively 75.9 36.4 0.007
Urinary continence documented preoperatively 89.7 50.0 0.002
Gleason score and pathologic stage reported 99.7 92.9 0.07

Mean adherence across prostate cancer
measures f (95% CI)
91.6%
(90.0% – 92.6%)
74.4%
(60.5% – 88.3%)
0.001 g

OVERALL CANCER a n = 4920 n = 114

Mean adherence across all four cancer
measures f (95% CI)
85.7%
(85.1% – 86.3%)
83.8%
(79.5% – 88.1%)
0.64 g
a

Process measures were evaluated for all non-Hispanic White and American Indian/Alaska Native patients who received inpatient operations for breast, colon, lung, and prostate cancers.

b

. NHW: non-Hispanic White.

c

. AI/AN: American Indian and Alaska Native.

d

. Reported as Fisher's exact test for difference in frequency between non-Hispanic Whites and American Indians/Alaska Natives unless otherwise stated.

e

. ALND: axillary lymph node dissection.

f

. Percentage adherence was calculated across metrics for which a patient was eligible (e.g., non-smoking patients were not eligible for smoking cessation counseling).

g

. Reported as two-sample Wilcoxon rank-sum (Mann-Whitney) test for differences.

h

. PFT: pulmonary function tests.

i

. PSA: prostate-specific antigen test.