Use of diagnostic imaging in late-stage cancer increased while orders for imaging in early-stage disease declined over a 5-year period, analysis of cancer registry data showed. Almost 96% of Medicare patients with stage IV breast, colorectal, lung, or prostate cancer had some form of high-cost imaging, and a third of the patients had advanced imaging studies during the last year of life. Patients with stage IV cancer averaged almost 10 advanced diagnostic imaging procedures, as reported online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
