Abstract

The aim of this study was to study the impact of hospital level and surgical skill on short-term survival of advanced ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal cancer patients in a prospective population-based study. All 198 women with a diagnosis of advanced epithelial invasive ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal cancer in Norway who underwent surgery during 2002 were included in this study. The data were derived from notifications to the Norwegian Cancer Registry and from medical, surgical, and histopathologic records. The hospitals were grouped into teaching and nonteaching hospitals (NTH), and the operating physicians were classified according to specialty (specialist gynecologist, gynecologist, and surgeon). The follow-up period was from 455 to 820 days. The short-term survival at 450 days was 79% for women operated at teaching hospitals (TH) and 62% at NTH (P= 0.02). After simultaneous adjustment for seven prognostic factors and residual disease, the risk of death within 600 days at NTH was unchanged compared to TH, hazard ratio 1.83. The women operated on by specialist compared to general gynecologists had a 20% increased short-term survival (P < 0.0001). TH and specialist gynecologists achieved better short-term survival of patients operated for advanced ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal cancer. Centralization and specialization of ovarian cancer surgery might improve the outcome for this patient group.