Reasons for not receiving standard of care treatment and effectiveness of capecitabine in stage III colon cancer patients in Alberta

• Author / Creator

  El Shayeb, Mohamed

• Adjuvant chemotherapy is the standard of care for stage-III colon cancer. Despite this,
  large proportions of patients do not receive it; the oncologist may not recommend it or
  the patient may refuse it. We aimed to identify the physicians’ and patients’ reasons for
  making treatment decisions. We also evaluated the effectiveness of newly-introduced
  capecitabine in real clinical practice. A retrospective population-based study was
  conducted that included all surgically-treated stage-III colon cancer patients in Alberta
  between 2002 and 2005 who had consultation with an oncologist. Chart reviews were
  conducted to extract treatment details, oncologists’ reasons for not recommending, and
  patients’ reasons for declining chemotherapy. A total of 613 patients met the inclusion
  criteria. Overall, 27% of the patients did not receive chemotherapy. The most frequent
  reason for not recommending chemotherapy was co-morbidity. Twenty-two percent of
  patients declined treatment due to toxicity concerns. Effectiveness results of capecitabine
  conformed to its efficacy.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Standard of care
  • Colon cancer
  • Adjuvant chemotherapy
  • Comparative effectiveness

• Graduation date

  Fall 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3501S

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.