This invited commentary discusses the tension between quality improvement and timeliness in cancer care, responding to findings by Sakowitz and colleagues on how regionalization and multidisciplinary approaches may affect treatment delays.
The authors argue that as cancer care centralizes and regionalizes, quality-improvement efforts may inadvertently create barriers to timely treatment unless capacity and care coordination keep pace.
Full text is behind a paywall; only the abstract/preview is available. The commentary does not present original data, and the specific findings of the Sakowitz et al. study it references are not detailed here.
Clinicians and health systems should monitor treatment timeliness as a core quality metric alongside clinical outcomes, particularly as cancer care continues to regionalize. Expanding capacity and care coordination infrastructure is essential to avoid access delays.
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