Cancer care patterns in South Korea: Types of hospital where patients receive care and outcomes using national health insurance claims data

Abstract

Background: Although strengthening coverage has improved cancer care, there are concerns related to medical distortion. Previous studies have only examined whether patients visit a specific hospital, and not the continuum of patients with cancer, resulting in a lack of evidence in South Korea. This study aimed to investigate the patterns in hospital type for cancer care and analyze their association with outcomes. Methods:The data for this study were obtained from the National Health Insurance Services Sampled Cohort database. This study included patients with four types of cancer (top four cancer incidence in 2020): gastric (3353), colorectal (2915), lung (1351), and thyroid (5158) cancer. The latent class mixed model was used to investigate cancer care patterns, and multiple regression or survival analysis was performed to examine medical cost, length of stay (LOS), and mortality. Results:The patterns in each cancer type were classified into two to four classes, namely, mainly visited clinics or hospitals, mainly visited general hospitals, mainly visited tertiary hospitals (MT), and tertiary to general hospitals through trajectory modeling based on the utilization of cancer care. Compared to the MT pattern, other patterns were generally associated with higher cost, LOS, and mortality. Conclusion:The patterns found in this study may be a more realistic way of defining patients with cancer in South Korea compared to previous studies, and its

Indocyanine Green (ICG) in Robotic Gastrectomy: A Retrospective Review of Lymphadenectomy Outcomes for Gastric Cancer

“…In 2020 alone, an estimated 1 million new GC diagnoses led to 769,000 fatalities [1]. Notably, Korea has one of the world's highest GC incidences, registering 41.4 to 51.9 cases per 100,000 individuals [2,3].…”