Hospital variation in failure to cure in esophageal cancer surgery: is the proportion of patients undergoing surgery per hospital pivotal?

Background: The proportion of potentially curable esophageal cancer patients undergoing surgery varies among hospitals. Failure to cure is a composite outcome describing surgery not meeting its aim: 1) non-resectional surgery, 2) non-radical surgery (R1/R2) or 3) postoperative mortality. This study hypothesized that hospitals offering surgery to relatively many patients have higher failure-to-cure rates. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the proportion of potentially curable esophageal cancer patients undergoing surgery and failure-to-cure rates.