Cancer Surgery Volume 2017

This report provides information about the number of cancer-related surgeries performed at Pennsylvania hospitals. Hospital surgical volume is reported for 11 types of cancers including bladder, brain, breast, colon, esophageal, liver, lung, pancreatic, prostate, rectal, and stomach cancer. This information can be helpful to cancer patients, their families, and others when making decisions about cancer surgical care in Pennsylvania.

There is strong evidence in the scientific literature that links hospital surgical volume and patient outcomes for the cancer surgeries included in this report. In other words, patients requiring one of these 11 surgeries are likely to have better results if their surgery is performed at a higher volume hospital. Lower volume hospitals are more likely to have worse outcomes, such as more deaths. While in general the volume of cases reflects the degree of experience a hospital has with performing each type of surgery, volume data should not be used in isolation when making conclusions about hospital quality since many other factors such as patient level of sickness (stage of cancer) or surgeon experience may also contribute to the overall outcome.