Location of Cancer Surgery for Older Veterans with Cancer

Objective

Many veterans undergo cancer surgery outside of the eterans ealth dministration (). We assessed to what extent these patients obtained care in the before surgery.

Data Sources

‐edicare data, administrative data, and eterans ffairs entral ancer egistry data.

Study Design

We identified patients aged ≥65 years in the ‐edicare cohort who underwent lung or colon cancer resection outside the and assessed visits in the year before surgery.

Principal Findings

Over 60% of patients in the ‐edicare cohort who received lung or colon cancer surgeries outside the did not receive any care in before surgery.

Conclusions

Veterans’ receipt of major cancer surgery outside the probably reflects usual private sector care among veterans who are infrequent users.