The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), a state agency devoted to containing healthcare costs, has tallied the number of cancer surgeries in the region and identified the top-five procedural sites. John George reported the ranking in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Far out front was the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, with nearly twice as many surgeries as any other regional center. HUP surgeons, under its Penn Medicine banner, did 2,039 cancer surgeries last year.

The only other institution to top 1,000 operating room visits was Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Pennsylvania Hospital ranked No. 3 with 728, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital had 703.

Close behind, at 495, was Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, making Montgomery County the site of the only top-five location.

Elsewhere in the suburbs, the statistics showed:

• St. Mary Medical Center, Langhorne, Bucks County: 244
• Chester County Hospital, West Chester: 345
• Riddle Hospital, Media, Delaware County: 186

The PHC4 study encompassed the treatment of 11 types of cancer: bladder, brain, breast, colon, esophageal, liver, lung, pancreatic, prostate, rectal, and stomach.

The full dataset on area cancer surgeries is at the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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