Description: TUESDAY, July 24 (HealthDay News) -- Surgeons who perform the highest number of prostatectomies -- prostate removal to help stop cancer -- tend to have the best patient outcomes, a new study confirms.

In fact, it takes at least 250 operations before a surgeon becomes proficient in the procedure, researchers found. With more experience, the odds that the patient's cancer will come back declines, according to the report in the July 24 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"Your chance of being cancer-free after surgery for prostate cancer are strongly influenced by the amount of experience that your surgeon has," said lead researcher Andrew Vickers, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Patients with prostate cancer need to be seen by an experienced surgeon, Vickers advised. In reality, "many patients are seen by surgeons with very low levels of experience," he said. "Many surgeons do as few as one prostatectomy a year -- they are never g