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Utilization of a primary care-based cancer survivorship clinic: patterns and patient characteristics

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Journal of Cancer Survivorship Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The Johns Hopkins Primary Care for Cancer Survivors (PCCS) Clinic was established in 2015 to improve care delivery for the growing cancer survivor population. We aim to describe areas of care addressed by PCCS and factors associated with clinic utilization.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective chart review of the first 301 patients’ clinic visits. We used negative binomial regression models to identify factors associated with the rate of PCCS clinic visits overall and for cancer surveillance and treatment-related effects.

Results

There were 1702 clinic visits across 301 patients during the study period (77% female, median age 61). The most common areas of care addressed were chronic medical problems (80%), preventive health care (62%), cancer surveillance (59%), treatment-related effects (50%), and new/acute problems (46%). Multivariate analyses found that age > 60 years (IRR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.2–3.0, p = 0.007) and higher number of comorbidities (IRR = 1.2, 95% CI = 1.1 − 1.2, p < 0.001) were associated with more overall PCCS visits, while female gender was associated with fewer visits (IRR = 0.6, CI = 0.4 − 0.8, p = 0.001). Gastrointestinal cancer type, shorter length of survivorship, male gender, and higher number of comorbidities were associated with a higher rate of visits addressing both surveillance and treatment-related effects (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The PCCS clinic addressed cancer and non-cancer related needs. Older patients and survivors with more comorbidities had significantly increased clinic utilization.

Implications for Cancer Survivors

As the cancer survivor population grows, increasing access to survivorship clinics based in primary care may help meet these patients’ diverse oncologic and general health needs.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by a Merck Foundation Grant N022890.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Aamna Kabani and Victoria F. Lenihan are co-first authors/that these authors contributed equally to work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Aamna Kabani & Victoria F. Lenihan

  2. Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Christiana Zhang, Zackary D. Berger, Craig E. Pollack, Sydney M. Dy, Kimberly S. Peairs & Youngjee Choi

  3. Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Zackary D. Berger

  4. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Zackary D. Berger, Craig E. Pollack & Sydney M. Dy

  5. Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Craig E. Pollack, Sydney M. Dy, Kimberly S. Peairs & Youngjee Choi

  6. Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Data Management Core, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Cyd K. Eaton & Yisi Liu

  7. Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Cyd K. Eaton

Authors
  1. Aamna Kabani
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  2. Victoria F. Lenihan
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  3. Christiana Zhang
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  4. Zackary D. Berger
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  5. Craig E. Pollack
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  7. Yisi Liu
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  8. Sydney M. Dy
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  9. Kimberly S. Peairs
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  10. Youngjee Choi
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Contributions

Conceptualization: AK, VFG, YC. Data curation: AK, VFG, CKE, YL, YC. Formal Analysis: CKE, YL. Funding acquisition: KSP, YC. Investigation: AK, VFG, YC. Methodology: AK, VFG, CZ, ZDB, CEP, CKE, YL, SMD, KSP, YC. Project administration: YC. Resources: CZ, ZDB, CEP, SMD, KSP, YC. Supervision: YC. Validation: CKE, YL, YC. Writing — original draft: AK, VFG, YC. Writing — review & editing: all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Youngjee Choi.

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Conflict of interest

Drs. Choi and Peairs have received salary support from a Merck Foundation Grant. Dr. Pollack reports stock ownership in Gilead Pharmaceuticals. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

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Kabani, A., Lenihan, V.F., Zhang, C. et al. Utilization of a primary care-based cancer survivorship clinic: patterns and patient characteristics. J Cancer Surviv (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01378-1

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