Thoracic Cancer |
Lung and Thoracic Cancer Care and Services at WPAHS
The Center for Thoracic Surgery provides comprehensive, innovative clinical services for the treatment of:
- Esophageal Cancer
- Lung Cancer
- Non-Small Cell
- Small Cell
- Mesothelioma
The Center's approach differs from most others in that it combines the clinical treatment of lung cancer with an active research program allowing patients to try experimental approaches when conventional intervention has yielded limited results. Patients of WPAHS’s Centers have access to a wide variety of clinical trials. We are accredited by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery as a training site, and are one of the few facilities in the country with a specialty track in general thoracic surgery.
The multidisciplinary team at the Center for Thoracic Surgery involves experienced thoracic surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, pulmonologists, and other medical specialists. The center’s physician’s work together with dedicated nursing staff, dieticians, cardiopulmonary therapists, and social workers to provide patients with individualized educational and rehabilitative programs aimed at restoring and maintaining the greatest quality of life.
The Center's staff are among the region's leaders in developing and advancing new treatments and maximizing the effectiveness of more traditional options. The lung cancer specialists of the Center assisted in pioneering a combined program of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery to help improve the cure rate for early stage cancers.
Their cooperation and coordination allows the Centers to offer a state-of-the-art, tailored treatment plan to meet each individual's needs.
When lung surgery is required, our thoracic surgeons offer some of the most advanced surgical options, including minimally invasive and video-assisted techniques that require smaller incisions and provide a faster recovery. The thoracic surgeons are also leaders in exploring less invasive diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to esophageal cancer, and have led the region in experience with the use of thorascopic and laparoscopic management of this malignancy.
Expanded endoscopic approaches for the treatment of these cancers offer less invasive options for managing the disease. For example, patients with malignant airway or esophageal obstructions may be managed with the use of endoscopic therapies including dilation, debridement, laser ablation, endoluminal radiation (brachytherapy), photodynamic therapy or stent insertion in place of, or prior to surgical treatment.
One promising minimally invasive technique is called Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), currently a treatment for advanced esophageal cancer. The treatment, which takes 12 to 25 minutes, can be used during all stages of cancer and may be used in conjunction with surgery or other treatments. Although far from a cure-all, its greatest promise may be with early-stage cancer patients as a means of avoiding surgical intervention.
By reducing the morbidity of surgery with these techniques, they often can help patients make an earlier return to full activities and develop greater tolerance to the possible therapies that may subsequently be needed.
For more information click here:
http://www.pittsburghheartcare.com/physicians/index.cfm
