Quality of diagnostic staging in patients with bladder cancer: a process-outcomes link.

Background: Muscle sampling is often used as a surrogate for staging quality in patients with bladder cancer. The association of staging quality at diagnosis and survival was examined among patients with bladder cancer.

Methods: The clinical records of all individuals within the Los Angeles Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry with an incident diagnosis of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer in 2004-2005 were reviewed.

Latinas and breast cancer outcomes: population-based sampling, ethnic identity, and acculturation assessment.

Purpose: Latinas and African-Americans with breast cancer, especially those of lower socioeconomic status and acculturation, have been underrepresented in studies assessing treatment satisfaction, decision-making, and quality of life. A study was designed to recruit a large and representative sample of these subgroups.

Materials And Methods: Incident cases were selected by rapid case ascertainment (RCA) in the Los Angeles Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Registry from 2005 to 2006, with oversampling of Latinas and African-Americans.

External validation of a claims-based algorithm for classifying kidney-cancer surgeries.

Background: Unlike other malignancies, there is no literature supporting the accuracy of medical claims data for identifying surgical treatments among patients with kidney cancer. We sought to validate externally a previously published Medicare-claims-based algorithm for classifying surgical treatments among patients with early-stage kidney cancer. To achieve this aim, we compared procedure assignments based on Medicare claims with the type of surgery specified in SEER registry data and clinical operative reports.