A Thesis submitted to The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine. / As research into the treatment of cancers improves patient’s chances for survival, the
number of cancer survivors continues to increase. These patients are often treated with
chemotherapy and radiation regimens that can increase their risk for cancers and other
complications such as heart disease later on. Patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma tend to be
younger than patients with other cancers. Current treatment regimens lead to cures in many
Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients with many long term survivors. However, these treatments place
survivors at risk for numerous complications, most importantly other cancers and heart disease.
Organizations such as the American Cancer Society recommend regular screening and
surveillance by a patient’s doctor to detect these potential complications. To assess the factors
that affect a patient’s follow‐up care we sent a survey to 365 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma survivors in
Arizona and asked them about their specific follow‐up care. The survivors were identified using
the Arizona Cancer registry, and 49 (13.4%) responded to our survey. However, of the 365
letter invitations that were sent out, 118 were returned undeliverable leading to a corrected
response rate of 19.8%. Of the respondents 93% reported they were getting follow up care. We
also looked at patient satisfaction with their care as a second outcome, 34 (72.3%) of the
patients stated that they were strongly satisfied with their follow‐ up care. In order to assess
physician‐patient communication, we asked patients if they had received a written follow‐up
care plan. Of the respondents to this question, 14 (29.7%) noted that they had received a
written follow up care plan. These two outcomes were stratified to various demographic factors
(age, gender, education status, etc.) to determine if any of these caused a statistically
significant difference in a patient’s satisfaction or whether or not they had received a written
follow‐up plan. Due to the low number of responders, no statistically significant difference was
found. Future studies are needed to further determine whether or not these sorts of
demographic factors play a significant role but we believe studies like this are important as
cancer survivorship continues to increase.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/603586 |
| Date | 23 March 2016 |
| Creators | Baker, Devon |
| Contributors | The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix, Flood, Timothy MD |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the College of Medicine - Phoenix, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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