Differences in Travel Time to Cancer Surgery for Colon versus Rectal Cancer in a Rural State: A New Method for Analyzing Time-to-Place Data Using Survival Analysis

摘要

Purpose Rectal cancer is rarer than colon cancer and is a technically more difficult tumor for surgeons to remove, thus rectal cancer patients may travel longer for specialized treatment compared to colon cancer patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether travel time for surgery was different for colon versus rectal cancer patients.