Care at high-volume radiation treatment centers tied to higher survival

Among men with very high-risk prostate cancer, higher radiation facility case volume is independently associated with longer overall survival, according to a study published online Aug. 8 in JAMA Network Open.

Nikhil Sebastian, M.D., from Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues examined differences in outcomes between patients with very high-risk prostate cancer treated at radiation facilities with high versus low patient volume. The analysis included 25,219 men identified from the National Cancer Database.

The researchers found that 25.5 percent of men were treated at facilities with high average cumulative volume. During a median of 57.4 months of follow-up, median overall survival was 123.4 months for men treated at high-volume centers versus 109.0 months for those treated at low-volume centers. Further, treatment at a high-volume center was associated with a lower risk for death (hazard ratio, 0.89). Results remained significant after inverse probability score weight-based adjustment.

"These findings suggest that the expertise and resources that accompany high-volume treatment facilities are associated with improved outcomes for men with very high-risk prostate cancer, but further investigation is needed to identify the specific causes for this association," the authors write.