Cancer Care at Home

  • Clinical Transformation,
  • Health Equity
Project Status: Complete

Cancer Care at Home delivers chemotherapy and other cancer treatments to over 3,000 patients per year in their own homes. The program has led to high levels of patient and provider satisfaction, and is now the standard of care for certain treatments and patient populations at Penn Medicine.

Each year, about 1.8 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer. Historically, nearly all life-extending cancer treatment has been delivered in outpatient or hospital settings. Within a year of diagnosis, three-quarters of those with advanced cancer end up in the hospital; one in six are hospitalized three or more times. And nearly all chemotherapy is delivered in physician offices or outpatient clinics.

Internationally, giving cancer drugs at home has been done safely and effectively across various patient populations and treatment regimens. But it’s uncommon in the U.S.

In late 2019, the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation brought together a multidisciplinary team of experts to explore if home cancer treatment could, for appropriate drugs and patient populations, take the place of inpatient or outpatient administration.

Cancer Care at Home launched in February 2020. During the first month of the program, 39 patients with breast cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma were referred to receive 7 different cancer treatments at home. When stay-at-home orders were issued in March 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program scaled nearly 700% in one month.

In the first six months of the program, nearly 500 patients were referred to receive 13 different cancer drugs at home through the Cancer Care @ Home program, with high levels of patient and provider satisfaction. For certain treatments and patient populations, cancer treatment at home is now the standard of care at Penn Medicine. Nearly 3000 Penn Medicine patients received cancer treatment in the comfort of their own homes in 2020.

Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I); Penn Medicine Center for Healthcare Transformation and Innovation (CHTI)

Penn Medicine at Home; Abramson Cancer Center; Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine; Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania Health System; Penn Center for Healthcare Transformation and Innovation

Project Leads

  • Justin Bekelman

    MD

    Director, Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation

  • Shivan Mehta

    MD, MBA, MSHP

    Assoc. Chief Innovation Officer, Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation

Project Team

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