Herlinda Sanchez heads back to her car with her husband, Manuel, after her final chemotherapy appointment at Texas Oncology. Lisa Krantz for KFF Health News
About an hour before they arrive at the cancer clinic, the couple pulls over to quickly eat fast food in the car. The break gives Herlinda time to apply ointment on the port where the needle for her chemotherapy will be inserted.
" It numbs the area, so when I get to the infusion room the needle won ' t hurt," she said.
For rural patients, getting cancer treatment close to home has always been difficult. But in recent years, chemotherapy deserts have expanded across the United States, with 382 rural hospitals halting services from 2014 to 2022, according to a report published this spring by Chartis, a health analytics and consulting firm.
Texas led that list, with 57 rural hospitals— nearly half of those statewide that had offered chemotherapy— cutting the service by 2022, according to the analysis. 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.