Factors affecting receipt of expensive cancer treatments and mortality: evidence from stem cell transplantation for leukemia and lymphoma.

Objective: To identify factors that affect whether patients diagnosed with either leukemia or lymphoma receive a stem cell transplant and secondly if receipt of stem cell transplantation is linked to improved survival.

Data: California inpatient discharge records (2002-2003) for patients with either leukemia or lymphoma linked with vital statistics death records (2002-2005).

Study Design: Bivariate Probit treatment effects model that accounts for both the type of treatment received and survival while controlling for nonrandom selection due to unobservable factors.