title: Influence of caseload and surgical speciality on outcome following surgery for colorectal cancer: a review of evidence. Part 2: long-term outcome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We reviewed recent literature to assess the impact of hospital caseload, surgeon's caseload and education on long-term outcome following colorectal cancer surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched the MEDLINE and Cochrane Library databases for relevant literature starting from 1992. We selected hospital caseload, surgeon's caseload and surgeon's education, type of hospital, and surgeon's experience as variables of interest. Measures of outcome were recurrence-free survival and overall survival, and for rectal cancer frequency of permanent stoma. We reviewed the 34 studies according to tumour location: colonic cancer, rectal cancer, or colorectal cancer. We described the studies individually and performed a meta-analysis whenever it was considered appropriate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For colonic cancer, overall survival improved with increasing hospital caseload, odds ratio (OR) 1.22 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.16-1.28], and surgeon's education. For rectal cancer, overall survival improved with increasing hospital caseload, OR 1.38 (95% CI 1.19-1.60), and, possibly by surgeon' education and experience. Cancer-free survival was strongly influenced by surgeon's education. The colostomy rate was less in high caseload hospitals, OR 0.76 (95% CI 0.68-0.85). For colorectal cancer, overall survival improved with surgeon's education.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data have provided evidence that long-term survival following colorectal cancer surgery in general improved significantly with increasing hospital caseload and surgeon's education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery P, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark. lene.h.iversen@dadlnet.dk
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Iversen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harling
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laurberg
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wille-Jørgensen
mesh_terms: D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D003107:Colorectal Surgery; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D013043:Specialties, Surgical; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016526:Workload