1 Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care , Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Durham, North Carolina.
2 Department of Population Health Sciences, Duke University Medical Center , Durham, North Carolina.
J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2019 Feb;28(2):268-275. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2018.6936. Epub 2018 Jun 19.
The Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system is a high-volume provider of cancer care. Women are the fastest growing patient population using VA healthcare services. Quantifying the types of cancers diagnosed among women in the VA is a critical step toward identifying needed healthcare resources for women Veterans with cancer.
We obtained data from the VA Central Cancer Registry for cancers newly diagnosed in calendar year 2010. Our analysis was limited to women diagnosed with invasive cancers (e.g., stages I-IV) between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2010, in the VA healthcare system. We evaluated frequency distributions of incident cancer diagnoses by primary anatomical site, race, and geographic region. For commonly occurring cancers, we reported distribution by stage.
We identified 1,330 women diagnosed with invasive cancer in the VA healthcare system in 2010. The most commonly diagnosed cancer among women Veterans was breast (30%), followed by cancers of the respiratory (16%), gastrointestinal (12%), and gynecological systems (12%). The most commonly diagnosed cancers were similar for white and minority women, except white women were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with respiratory cancers (p < 0.01) and minority women were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancers (p = 0.03).
Understanding cancer incidence among women Veterans is important for healthcare resource planning. While cancer incidence among women using the VA healthcare system is similar to U.S civilian women, the geographic dispersion and small incidence relative to male cancers raise challenges for high quality, well-coordinated cancer care within the VA.
退伍军人事务部（VA）医疗体系是癌症治疗的主要提供者。女性是使用 VA 医疗服务的增长最快的患者群体。量化 VA 医疗系统中女性诊断出的癌症类型是确定癌症女性退伍军人所需医疗资源的关键步骤。
我们从 VA 中央癌症登记处获取了 2010 年新诊断癌症的数据。我们的分析仅限于 2010 年 1 月 1 日至 2010 年 12 月 31 日期间在 VA 医疗系统中诊断为浸润性癌症（例如，I-IV 期）的女性。我们评估了原发性解剖部位、种族和地理位置的新发癌症诊断的频率分布。对于常见的癌症，我们按阶段报告了分布情况。
我们在 2010 年确定了 1330 名在 VA 医疗系统中诊断为浸润性癌症的女性。退伍军人女性中最常见的癌症是乳腺癌（30%），其次是呼吸系统癌症（16%）、胃肠道癌症（12%）和妇科癌症（12%）。白人和少数民族女性的最常见癌症相似，但白人女性被诊断为呼吸系统癌症的可能性明显更高（p<0.01），少数民族女性被诊断为胃肠道癌症的可能性明显更高（p=0.03）。
了解女性退伍军人的癌症发病率对于医疗资源规划很重要。尽管使用 VA 医疗系统的女性癌症发病率与美国平民女性相似，但相对于男性癌症的地理分散性和较低的发病率给 VA 内高质量、协调良好的癌症护理带来了挑战。
