RT Book, Section A1 Abdelsattar, Zaid M. A1 Wong, Sandra L. A2 Morita, Shane Y. A2 Balch, Charles M. A2 Klimberg, V. Suzanne A2 Pawlik, Timothy M. A2 Posner, Mitchell C. A2 Tanabe, Kenneth K. SR Print(0) ID 1145755195 T1 Outcomes Research T2 Textbook of Complex General Surgical Oncology YR 2018 FD 2018 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071793315 LK accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1145755195 RD 2024/10/13 AB In 2013, an estimated 1.7 million people in the United States will be newly diagnosed with cancer.1 With advances in multidisciplinary care, there has been a consistent decline in cancer death rates. Over the past two decades 1,177,300 cancer deaths were averted.2 However, cancer is still the second most common cause of death, exceeded only by heart disease, and accounts for nearly one of every four deaths in the United States.1 The cost of cancer care is rising faster than the other sectors of medicine, having increased from $72 billion in 2004 to $125 billion in 2010; costs are expected to increase further 39% to $173 billion by 2020.3 Even with improving survival rates, there remain gaps in cancer care, with large variations in access, quality, and outcomes. Coupled with the rising costs of health care over the past decades, as well as the discordance between spending and the overall quality of care, cancer care has become increasingly scrutinized in an era of ongoing health care reform.4