Studies examine associations between provider characteristics and mortality rates in ovar...( logic oncologists when possible the a...)

logic oncologists when possible," the authors write. "Although the relative contributions of specialized training and surgeon volume to the observed improved outcomes requires further study, our results suggest that the expertise required to know how to treat a patient, i.e., to perform an appropriately extensive surgery and the postoperative chemotherapy, if indicated, is at least as important as technical skill that would be reflected in the volume-outcome relationship alone."

In an accompanying editorial, Joseph Lipscomb, Ph.D., of Emory University in Atlanta, discusses the studies' strengths, limitations, and implications for future research. He writes: "Taken together, the closely related analyses reported in these articles make several substantial contributions. They represent the first large-scale, population-based investigation in the United States of whether there are volume-outcome relationships in ovarian cancer surgery, focusing on potential effects at both the hospital level and the surgeon level." Moreover, Lipscomb writes, the paper by Earle and colleagues "may be the first ever population-based study of the impact of provider specialty on surgical outcomes and care processes in cancer that controls for both surgeon and hospital volume."

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Contact: Ariel Whitworth
jncimedia@oxfordjournals.org
301-841-1287
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
31-Jan-2006

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