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Study: Nearly half of specialists who remove soft tissue sarcomas are non-oncology-designated surgeons
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Nearly half of the extremity soft tissue tumor surgeries in 85 medical centers studied during a 3-year period were performed by non-oncology-designated surgeons, such as general surgeons, plastic surgeons and orthopedic surgeons without post-medical fellowship training in cancer or sarcoma management, according to results of a study recently published in the Journal of Surgical Oncology.
“Our findings may have significant implications for the quality of care provided to patients who undergo surgery to resect, or remove, sarcomas in the deep soft tissue of the limbs,” Robert J. Canter, MD, MAS, from UC Davis, stated in a press release.
Using the University HealthSystem Consortium-Association of American Medical Colleges (UHC-AAMC) database, Canter and colleagues collected data for all the different types of extremity soft tissue tumors (ESTT), including subcutaneous, deep and malignant resections in addition to the anatomical site of the resection, according to the abstract. They also collected data for 4,682 specialists practicing orthopedic oncology, general orthopedics, plastic surgery, surgical oncology and general surgery.
Robert J. Canter
Among the specialists studied, general orthopedic surgeons performed 30.8% of ESTT procedures compared to 26% of procedures performed by orthopedic oncologists and 26% of procedures performed by surgical oncologists, according to the release. Plastic surgeons and general surgeons performed 7.7% and 9.4% of ESTT procedures, respectively.
Further, 17% of ESTT operations were performed by surgeons who only conducted 1 to 2 operations of that type per year, according to the abstract. However, the researchers found the mean number of subcutaneous or non-sarcoma procedures performed did not differ between the specialists studied.
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Canter and colleagues noted that due to the nature of the UHC-AAMC database, they were unable to connect each specialty with postoperative survival rates or complications.
Reference:
Canter RJ. J Surg Oncol. 2013;doi:10.1002/jso.23372.
Disclosure: This study was funded by the Department of Surgery at the UC Davis Health System.