Because there is no routine cancer, the site of your chemotherapy treatments should be anything but ordinary. A new study has found that patients who receive their initial chemotherapy treatment at an Alliance of Dedicated Cancer Centers (ADCC) hospital have better outcomes and live longer. The study of more than 40,000 cancer patients found that those treated at an ADCC had a 17 to 33 percent lower risk of death after three years. The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) is one of only 11 ADCC dedicated cancer hospitals in this country. The entire focus of these institutions is the treatment of cancer patients. Others include: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City to name a few. “This study is important because it shows that where you’re first treated is important,” said Susan White, PhD, RHIA, CHDA, and the Administrator of Analytics at the OSUCCC – James. “You can go to another hospital and they may have one oncology floor with several oncologists. We have 21 floors at The James to treat cancer, and hundreds of subspecialists who are experts in every specific type of cancer.” The new study was conducted by Milliman, a risk management and health care consulting company with headquarters in Seattle, Wash. The survey gathered data from 46,762 Medicare fee-for-service patients from the 11 ADCC cancer hospitals, as well as comprehensive cancer centers as designated by the National Cancer Institute that are not ADCC members, teaching hospitals and community hospitals. The study looked at patients with six types of cancer — breast, colon, lung, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate — and compared their progress from the times of their initial treatments (in 2010 or 2011) through 2015. The survival rate after three years at an ADCC hospital was 17 percent better than at the non-ADCC comprehensive cancer centers, about 25 percent better when compared to teaching hospitals and 33 percent better than the longevity rate at community hospitals. The study also found that the outcomes at ADCCs were better even though they treated, on average, a higher percentage of patients with more advanced cancer, with 64 percent of those patients falling within the two highest levels of treatment compared to approximately 57 percent at all other hospitals. “We are a true medical home for our patients. We treat more than just their cancer. If a patient needs a nutritional consultation, physical therapy or genetic counseling, we often provide that on the same day as all the other services,” White said. “We are able to monitor our patients’ progress and coordinate their care more effectively. The comprehensive nature of the ADCC institutions and the number of specialists for each type of cancer are a few of the many reasons why patients have better results. “When someone has chemotherapy treatments here, our doctors look at the genetic makeup of their cancer and match the specific treatment to that cancer,” White said. “That’s precision medicine, and why we ultimately have better outcomes