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Abstract

PURPOSE:

Although Korea has the highest incidence of gastric cancer worldwide and D2-lymphadenectomies are routinely performed, radiotherapy (RT) practice patterns have not been well studied. Therefore, we examined RT usage trends for neoadjuvant/adjuvant patients and identified factors associated with RT. We also examined survival benefits and net medical cost advantages of adding RT.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Patients diagnosed with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy from 2002-2013 were identified using National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort.

RESULTS:

Annually, 30.9 cases per 100,000 population in crude rate underwent gastrectomy in 230 hospitals and 49.8% received neoadjuvant/adjuvant therapy in 182 hospitals. For neoadjuvant/adjuvant patients, postoperative chemo-RT was administered in 4% of cases in 26 hospitals. No significant trends regarding treatment type were observed over time. Having undergone RT was inversely associated with being ≥ 60 years old and having a low income. Having undergone RT was positively related to having a Charlson comorbidity index ≥ 4, hospital location and hospital volume (≥ 2,000 beds). Significant portions of patients treated with RT in this nation (52%) were concentrated in one large-volume hospital. Use of RT linked to increased cost of primary treatment, yet not to reduced overall medical expense. RT did not influence both on overall and disease-specific survivals after adjusting for potential confounders (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION:

RT was uncommonly utilized as adjuvant or neoadjuvant treatment by physicians in Korea. Despite intrinsic drawback in this data, we did not find either survival benefit or net medical cost advantage by adding RT in adjuvant treatment.

Fig. 1.
Bubble charts for the proportion of patients by the hospital. Two-dimensional bubble charts indicate how the proportions of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (A), neoadjuvant chemotherapy (B), and adjuvant chemotherapy use (C) in each hospital change by hospital volume. The size of the bubble corresponds to the proportion within each treatment group. RT, radiotherapy.

 병원 별 방사선 치료 사용 빈도에 대한 버블 차트.

치료 환자의 대부분은 국내 한 개의 대형병원에 집중되어 있으며, 전반적으로는 그 사용이 제한적인 상황입니다.

Author information

Chang JS1, Choi Y2,3, Shin J3,4, Kim KH1,5, Keum KC1, Kim HS6, Koom WS1, Park EC3,4.

1 Department of Radiation Oncology, Yonsei Cancer Center, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
2 Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
3 Institute of Health Services Research, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
4 Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
5 Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea.
6 Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei Cancer Center, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.