What is an Interventional Oncology practice? In my highly specialized university center, it’s embolizations and ablations (about 500 a year), palliative procedures for luminal access (GI, GU, biliary - over 400), fluid drainage (over 1000), and venous access (over 2000) -- but very few percutaneous
My hospital has tumor boards for liver cancer, GI tract cancers, pancreas cancer, lung cancer, and urologic cancers. This year we started one for neuroendocrine cancers. There are too many for IO to staff them all, yet they are an incredible source of referrals and enduring relationships with other
The House of God was published in 1976; it became one the most popular medical novels of all time. Embedded in it are the Laws of the House of God. The Third Law is “The patient is the one with the disease". I invoke this Law almost every week in my clinic.
The evening before the WCIO Annual Scientific Meeting, the leadership gathers with senior executives from our corporate sponsors and exhibitors to provide an update on WCIO and solicit feedback and advice. This turns into a free-wheeling discussion, at times brutally frank, and is very valuable...
One of my favorite patients died this month. I first met him in January, 2008 when he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He was a 60-year-old martial arts and music instructor, a seriously cool dude who always showed up in rimless sunglasses with his grey hair tied back in a neat queue.
