Cancer trends in New York: The post-Covid reality – Buffalo Business First

Just as public health experts predicted, fewer cases of cancer were diagnosed in the midst of the pandemic.

Judging from the most recent numbers from the New York State Cancer Registry, the number of diagnoses has recovered, putting the state’s overall trend line right about where it appeared to be heading.

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Business First is exploring cancer and everything that goes into fighting it in our annual Cancer Care section. Below you’ll find what’s already published; stay tuned to learn more.

Cancer Care 2024: Away from the hospital setting

Advances in treatment and new drugs are pushing cancer care even farther away from hospital campuses into outpatient settings and, soon, right into patients’ homes.

It’s part of an ongoing evolution of care that started 30 years ago with new types of anti-nausea drugs — and more recently, novel immunotherapies — that is changing how and where patients are treated, turning the private practice model for providers on its head.

The result affects not just patients and their families, but also physicians, private practices and hospitals themselves, all of which are making significant investments to remain viable and competitive in the midst of ongoing change.

“Generally things have moved to the outpatient ambulatory setting and this is true no matter what illness you’re treating: It’s true for orthopedics and chronic conditions, too and it has to do with the cost of care,” said Dr. Sai Yendamuri, chief strategy officer and chair of the department of thoracic surgery at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. “It’s true with cancer as well.”

The ongoing migration is also changing where and for whom oncologists work. Like for many other medical specialties, the costs of providing care, and the way payers reimburse for that care, has led to fewer and fewer independent oncology practices, with the majority of cancer doctors now employed by hospitals or large multi-specialty groups.

Click here to read more from Tracey Drury.

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Cancer Care 2023: Hope and fiscal health

No one with cancer ever wants to hear their physician say that treatments aren’t working and that all efforts have been exhausted.

A series of new and ongoing clinical trials in the Buffalo region is offering new hope for those patients, while simultaneously bringing in millions of research dollars.

Health care leaders prefer to focus on the goal of their work: identifying and developing new therapeutic treatments to diagnose or treat cancer, as well as lessening the impact on individuals fighting the disease. But the fact remains that those efforts also help to grow the local workforce and support the local economy.

Click here to read more from Tracey Drury.