According to a new study published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, prostate cancer patients treated by highly experienced surgeons are much more likely to be cancer-free five years after surgery than patients treated by surgeons with less experience.
The difference in outcome among patients who were treated by surgeons with varying degrees of experience is clinically relevant and likely reflects a true relationship between surgical technique and cancer control, said the study's lead author Andrew Vickers, PhD, Associate Attending Research Methodologist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).
Many studies have examined the relationship between surgical experience and patient outcomes. However, it is often unclear whether the findings are related to differences in surgical technique or result from differences in clinical variables or tumor characteristics. In the current study, the researchers adjusted for cancer severity, so that differences among surgeons likely reflect differences in the techniques they use rather than just differences in the patients they see.
Investigators analyzed the cancer outcomes of 7,765 prostate cancer patients who were treated with radical prostatectomy surgical removal of the prostate by one of 72 surgeons at four major US academic medical centers over a 16-year period. Sophisticated statistical models were used to evaluate the link between the total number of prostatectomies performed by the surgeon prior to each patient's operation and biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer (defined as a rising PSA level of more than 0.4 ng/mL).
The results showed that the risk of recurrence five years after surgery was 17.9 percent for patients treated by surgeons who had performed 10 operations and 10.7 percent for patients treated by surgeons who had performed 250 operations. This means that patients treated by inexperienced surgeons were nearly 70 percent more likely to have a recurrence of their prostate cancer than those who were treated by surgeons with greater experience. According to the analysis, one out of every 14 patients treated by an inexperienced surgeon will have a recurrence.
The results were described in terms of a learning curve, which showed a dramatic improvement in cancer control with increasing surgical experience up to 250 prior operations; however, there was no large change in recurrence rates with additional surgical experience.