Grant: Catalyst Grant: Health Services and Economics Research in Cancer Control

This study will examine the available treatment options used to fight and cure pancreatic cancer. To accomplish this, we will evaluate patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Ontario between 2005 and 2015, who had surgery to try to cure their cancer. Using administrative data collected by the provincial and national governments, we will measure survival differences between chemotherapy and chemoradiation treatment groups and determine the resources used by each individual patient, both for their treatments (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation) and the complications of these treatments. The cost of the resources used for each treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, chemoradiation) will be added up to determine the total cost of each treatment that was paid by Canada's public health care system. The cost of each treatment will be combined with that treatment's effectiveness, or how many patients' lives were saved, in order to determine which treatment option provides the most effective and efficient care for patients battling pancreatic cancer. Finally, short interviews will be conducted with surgeons, medical oncologists and radiation oncologists to determine why physicians may choose one treatment option over another.