Travel Time to Treating Facility and Mortality in Men With Prostate Cancer

Is longer travel time to treatment associated with survival among patients with prostate cancer?In this cohort study of 159 943 patients with prostate cancer from 7 US states, those with travel times of 30 minutes or longer had significantly lower mortality rates compared with those with travel times of less than 30 minutes. There was 9% lower all-cause and 10% lower prostate cancer–specific mortality among patients with longer travel times compared with shorter travel times.These findings suggest that the observed survival advantage with longer travel time may reflect centralization benefits, though ensuring equitable health care access for all patients remains an important consideration.

Corresponding Author: Hari S. Iyer, ScD, Section of Cancer Epidemiology and Health Outcomes, Rutgers Cancer Institute, 120 Albany St, Office 8009, Tower 2, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 (hi97@cinj.rutgers.edu).

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