AlignMap

I am remiss in not already posting this follow-up to an earlier post, Research Examining Culturally Tailored Compliance Enhancement Interventions. I had emailed the primary author, Dr. Katherine Ell about the status of Improving Patient Adherence To Cancer Treatment and when it was scheduled for completion and publication.

Dr. Ell’s gracious and prompt reply explains that the study has been completed and work is currently focused on the adherence outcome analysis paper.

She goes on to note that the adherence rates for both the intervention and control groups are remarkably high, above 90 percent for chemotherapy and radiation therapy although adherence to post-treatment follow-up is lower. Consequently, there are no significant differences between groups.

The study population is low-income, and the qualitative studies indicate a key factor in adherence seems to be the availability of the Cancer Treatment Fund which went into effect in Jan 2002 at the start of our clinical trial. The data also show that cost concerns were very high at baseline for both groups.

Finally, Dr. Ell points out that she and her colleagues will later examine other quality of life outcomes.