Establishing a rapid diagnostic clinic at a tertiary care cancer center: The Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center (IUSCCC) experience.

e13602 Background: Rapid diagnostic clinics (RDCs) are designed to accelerate evaluation and treatment for patients with suspected malignancy. We assessed the performance of the newly established RDC at the Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center (IUSCCC) with respect to referral volume, diagnostic yield, cancer distribution, and key time-to-care metrics. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all patients referred to the IUSCCC RDC between November 1, 2021, and November 1, 2025. Patient demographics, cancer diagnosis status, primary tumor site distribution, initial treatment modality among patients diagnosed with cancer, and time-to-care intervals were summarized. Time metrics were reported as median (range) and included: suspected cancer finding to RDC appointment, referral to first RDC visit, suspected cancer finding to confirmed diagnosis, RDC visit to subspecialist consultation, and suspected cancer finding to treatment initiation. Results: A total of 697 referrals were evaluated. Median age was 63 years (range, 17-95), and 48.3% were male and 51.7% female. Racial distribution was 84.1% White, 12.6% Black/African American, 2.9% Asian, and 0.1% each American Indian/Alaska Native, other, or unknown. Overall, 361 patients (51.8%) were diagnosed with cancer, while 336 (48.2%) did not have a malignancy identified after comprehensive evaluation, and 7 of the latter were lost to follow-up. Among patients diagnosed with cancer, initial management included systemic therapy in 52.1%, surgery in 18.8%, hospice/palliative care in 11.6%, surveillance in 6.6%, and radiation therapy in 4.4%. Median time from suspected cancer finding to RDC appointment was 8 days (range, 0-281), and from referral to first RDC visit was 5 days (range, 0-42). Median time from suspected cancer finding to confirmed diagnosis was 17 days (range, 0-304), and to treatment initiation was 24 days (range, 2-267). Median time from RDC visit to subspecialist consultation was 15 days (range, 0-263). The most common primary tumor origins were thoracic (28.0%), gastrointestinal (20.8%), and hematologic (18.6%). Conclusions: In this large RDC cohort, approximately half of referred patients were ultimately diagnosed with cancer. The IUSCCC RDC demonstrated rapid access to diagnostic evaluation and timely initiation of treatment, with a median of 24 days from suspected cancer finding to therapy. These findings support the value of RDC models in expediting cancer diagnosis and care delivery at tertiary cancer centers.