A study of Medicare claims and other data in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that patients treated at specialty cancer hospitals have a 10 percent lower chance of dying in the first year than those who are treated at community hospitals. The study was funded and produced by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City, which, of course, would have a vested financial interest in such a report’s findings.

The research analyzed survival and administrative data for about 750,000 Medicare patients treated for cancer in 2006 at hospitals across America.

The study said that patients treated by hospitals in the Alliance of Dedicated Cancer Centers had higher survival rates in all types of cancers studied, with such rates continuing through five years of follow-up care.