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The Breast Cancer Volume/Outcomes Project is a joint Project of Health Care Choices and the New York State Department of Health supported by funding from The New York Community Trust. The goal of this Project was to examine the relationship between the volume of breast cancer surgery done by a doctor or hospital and the length of time a woman with breast cancer survives after surgery. It is hoped that information from the Project will lead to improvements in the quality of breast cancer treatment. Recent research under the Project shows that the less frequently a treating surgeon does breast cancer surgery, the poorer the chances are that the surgeon's patients will survive over the long term. This result is similar to results from Other Studies. Although the Project did not find a correlation between higher hospital breast cancer surgery volume and improved survival, such a relationship has also been found in Other Studies. The Project examined survival in 2 ways. It looked at 5 year survival of patients receiving surgery on a hospital inpatient basis (1995-1998). It also looked at 3 year survival of patients whose surgery was done either on an inpatient or outpatient basis (1997-1998). Death rates were adjusted to take into account differences in the health and treatment of patients in the study. This included adjusting for such factors as age, race/ethnicity, cancer stage, whether or not there was an axillary node dissection, type of surgery (mastectomy or breast conserving surgery) and other medical conditions of the patients. Data for the study came from the New York State Health Department's Cancer Registry and the Department's SPARCS (Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System) databases. In addition to showing a relationship between lower physician surgical volume and poorer patient survival, the study revealed that there are many surgeons in New York with limited breast cancer surgical experience performing breast cancer surgery. 71% of the surgeons in the 5 year survival analysis did 5 or fewer breast cancer surgeries per year. 51% of the surgeons in the 3 year analysis did 6 or fewer surgeries per year and 69% did 12 or fewer. The Health Department has provided Health Care Choices with data which shows the volume of breast cancer surgery done by each surgeon and hospital in New York. The data also shows the number of surgeries performed by a surgeon at each hospital at which the surgeon did breast cancer surgery. We have included on our website this surgeon volume information and hospital volume information. This information is being provided as a matter of general interest. We have not independently verified this information and make no representations about it. It may not be indicative of the current volume of breast cancer surgery done by a surgeon or hospital. In addition, it is important to keep in mind that the fact that a particular surgeon or hospital may have done a high volume of breast cancer surgery is no guarantee that the surgeon or hospital will be successful in treating a patient or that the patient will survive breast cancer for any specific period of time. For information about our November 15, 2004 Conference on the Breast Cancer Volume/Outcomes Project click HERE. For further information
on the Breast Cancer Volume/Outcomes Project, you can email us at
info@healthcarechoices.org.
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Page Last Updated:
March
2005
