PURPOSE As chemotherapy costs escalate, financial concerns have become relevant for more cancer patients. Yet, little is known about how oncologists communicate with patients about coping with chemotherapy treatment costs. METHODS To understand how medical oncologists view these issues, we developed a survey eliciting their attitudes and behaviors surrounding discussing costs of therapy in th...

PURPOSE To evaluate satisfaction with work-life balance (WLB) and career plans of US oncologists. METHODS The American Society of Clinical Oncology conducted a survey of US oncologists evaluating satisfaction with WLB and career plans between October 2012 and March 2013. The sample included equal numbers of men and women from all career stages. RESULTS Of 2,998 oncologists contacted, 1,490 ...

BACKGROUND Providing patients with unrestricted access to their electronic medical records through patient portals has impacted patient-provider communication and patients' personal health knowledge. However, little is known about how patient portals are used in oncology. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to understand attitudes of the portal's adoption for oncology and to identify the adva...

letters to the editor Bringing geriatrics into oncology or also oncology into geriatrics? We read with interest the article of Sifer-Rivière et al. [1] on the the role and status of geriatricians in a Pilot Geriatric Oncology Program that appeared in the October issue of this year. The authors' that considerations derive from the work carried out in one of the Pilot Oncogeriatric Coordination U...

BACKGROUND Clinical trials are critical for evaluating new cancer therapies, but few adult patients participate in them. Physicians have an important role in facilitating patient participation in clinical trials. We examined the characteristics of specialty physicians who participate in clinical trials by enrolling or referring patients, the types of trials in which they participate, and factor...

BACKGROUND Overuse of surveillance testing for breast cancer survivors is an important problem but its extent and determinants are incompletely understood. The objectives of this study were to determine the extent to which physicians' breast cancer surveillance testing beliefs are consistent with test overuse, and to identify factors associated with these beliefs. METHODS During 2009-2010, a ...

PURPOSE We sought to examine the employment of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) in surgical, medical, and radiation oncology practices and to identify correlates of NP and PA employment. METHODS We conducted a mailed survey of attending surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists who cared for a population-based sample of women diagnosed with breast cancer...

There has been considerable recent interest in radiation oncologists becoming more involved in prescribing systemic therapy. Radiation oncology and medical oncology have been very distinct disciplines with little overlap in Australia and New Zealand. However, the Faculty of Radiation Oncology identified systemic therapy as a priority to be investigated. The subsequent workforce survey in 2010 f...