Rural cancer patients face 'chemotherapy deserts.' Traveling for care means more time and expenses for rural families.

Rural cancer patients are less likely to survive their
diagnosis. (Adobe Stock photo)

One way struggling rural hospitals cut costs is by closing specialized services such as rural cancer care units, which are expensive to staff and run. As more country hospitals have shed cancer care treatment, rural residents face longer drives for treatment and poorer cancer outcomes, reports Charlotte Huff of KFF Health News. Getting cancer treatment for rural Americans wasn't ever easy, but now there are "chemotherapy deserts."

Between 2014 and 2022, 382 rural hospitals ended their cancer treatment services. "Texas led that list, with 57 rural hospitals — nearly half of those statewide that had offered chemotherapy — cutting the service by 2022," Huff writes. "Rural hospitals in states like Texas, which hasn’t expanded Medicaid, have been more likely to close, according to data from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research."

Living in a chemotherapy desert can have numerous negative outcomes for patients and their families. "Treatments for breast, colon and other common cancers must be administered intravenously inside a medical facility," Huff explains. "Even distances of an hour or two each way can strain patients who already may be coping with nausea, diarrhea and other side effects." Travel costs, alongside a family member taking time off work to drive a cancer patient to treatment, add to the disease's financial strain for rural families.

"Cancer infusions can last as long as eight hours on top of the travel time, causing significant financial and logistical challenges, said Erin Ercoline, executive director of the ThriveWell Cancer Foundation," Huff reports. "The nonprofit provides adult patients with financial assistance, including for gaps in insurance and transportation-related costs."

Even within communities that have financial buffers to help rural cancer patients, distance from care exacts a toll. "Rural patients are less likely to survive at least five years after a cancer diagnosis compared with their urban counterparts, concluded a study co-authored by Lewis-Thames and published in JAMA Network Open in 2022," Huff writes. "While the rural-urban survival gap narrowed over the nearly 40 years researchers studied, the disparity persisted across most racial and ethnic groups."