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September 25, 2001

Group Health awarded $1.3 million to study cancer care

Seattle—Group Health Center for Health Studies has been awarded $1.35 million from the National Cancer Institute to take part in a large, nationwide study of cancer care.

The "Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance Consortium" (CanCORS) study will examine patterns of care, health outcomes, and patient-centered issues such as symptom control and quality of life. The initiative is intended to improve monitoring of care delivered to newly diagnosed patients. Another aspect of the study will examine costs associated with different treatment strategies.

"This type of study has never been done on a national scale before," said Margaret T. Mandelson, PhD, a cancer epidemiologist with Group Health and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the head Group Health researcher on the project. "The diversity of race, ethnicity, geography, and delivery systems represented in the project will allow investigators to look at large groups of patients who have similar diseases and see how their processes of care differ." 

Investigators also hope to find out how those differences are linked to various patient outcomes. "Ultimately, this may help us find ways to reduce disparities and ensure that everybody is getting the best possible care," Mandelson said.

More about CanCORS
CanCORS is a national research consortium with membership from several institutions, including Harvard University Medical School, the RAND Corporation, the University of North Carolina, the University of Iowa, and the University of Alabama. Each consortium member will study and contribute data from a large population of patients with newly diagnosed with lung or colorectal cancer. Investigators from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are leading a group of five HMOs that will participate as a single member of the consortium. Group Health is one of these five HMOs. The other health plans in this group—all part of the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Research Network—are Harvard Pilgrim, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, and Henry Ford Health System. This group is charged with studying a diverse population of approximately 6,500 cancer patients over a two-year period.

Group Health investigators will also work with investigators from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle to conduct an in-depth study of the cost of cancer care among all the health plans involved in its part of CanCORS. Led by Scott Ramsey, MD, PhD, an internist and economist with FHCRC, this special study will examine costs attributable to specific choices for therapy or symptom control when treating lung cancer or colon cancer.

Group Health's participation in the CanCORS study will benefit patients who receive cancer care at the Cooperative, predicts Mandelson. "The study will give Group Health providers an opportunity to work with researchers on delivery system issues that could have an immediate positive impact," she said.

The Group Health CanCORS research team also includes Ed Wagner, MD, MPH, and Paul Fishman, PhD. Wagner is director of the Center's MacColl Institute for Health Care Innovation and an expert in chronic disease care. Fishman is an economist and assistant investigator with expertise in the link between costs and health outcomes.

Group Health Center for Health Studies conducts epidemiologic, health-services, and clinical research related to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of major health problems. Funded primarily through government and private research grants the Center is located in Seattle, Washington.

Group Health Cooperative is the nation's largest consumer governed health care system, serving nearly 600,000 people in Washington and Idaho.

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