Fragmented Surgical Cancer Care—A Growing Divide

Abstract

We read with great interest the article by Brauer et al 1 describing the establishment of regionalized acute care centers to decentralize postoperative care. Care fragmentation in cancer care occurs when patients are admitted or care for at facilities different than the site of their original surgery. Their findings, which decentralized symptom care clinics had comparable patient safety and cost and were increasingly used by patients over time, highlighted a potential solution to a timely issue that will exponentially grow as surgical cancer care becomes increasingly centralized to tertiary centers. We previously evaluated fragmented care in the realm of ovarian cancer and have advocated for the evolution of mechanisms within health care systems that acknowledge a truism we hope will be increasingly appreciated by all surgical oncologists: when cancer surgery is completed, the job is not yet done. 2,3 While we applaud the work done by Brauer et al 1 to improve the quality and timeliness of care received by patients in their system, we also believe this solution has only scratched the surface.