Rise of Successful Immunotherapy Options Means Fewer Patients Require surgery for Colorectal Cancer
New immunotherapy treatments shifting surgical protocols at Hackensack University Medical Center
The recent advent of successful immunotherapy treatments has shifted the balance of medical and surgical management of colorectal cancer at Hackensack University Medical Center.
“Immunotherapy is changing the landscape for patients with colon cancer to the point where with some patients we do not need to operate. They’re having good quality of life and activity levels without standard surgical treatment,” Steven Lee-Kong, M.D., division chief of Colorectal Surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center, said.
Hackensack University Medical Center has been able to nimbly accommodate this recent treatment evolution by collectively assessing individual colorectal cancer patients and developing and adapting multispecialty-informed treatment plans.
Regular patient review meetings include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiologists, radiation oncologists and technologists. Rather than treating these patients in isolation, each of these patients is discussed and the group together develops a treatment plan based on their specific conditions. The multispecialty meetings facilitate initial assessment and treatment planning discussion, as well as collective review of how each patient responds to treatment and ongoing care needs change. Treatment plans are updated accordingly.
“Immunotherapy has really shifted those discussions,” Dr. Lee-Kong said. Initial plans that traditionally would have called for surgery more often do not have a surgical component, and treatment plans that do include surgical care as follow-up to immunotherapy are being revised downstream to cancel surgery plans due to such positive responses to these new medical treatments, he said.
The ongoing collective discussions across specialties lead to better patient outcomes, Dr. Lee-Kong said.
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