Where to go for Surgery

I was just diagnosed with stage 2 EC. I can only describe myself as pretty depressed at the moment.
I live very near Stanford, but they seem to do relatively little of this surgery. I am meeting tomorrow with a surgeon at USC in Southern California, about 500 miles away. I also am considering going east to Mayo or others for an opinion and possible surgery. My local GI doc encourages me to do it locally saying that having my family, wife, two adult children, one grandchild, close will be a big help. He tells me that the Stanford Surgeon is very good even though he does relatively few of these.

I would be interested in how others have coped with traveling to a distant location? How do you handle complications and was it worth it? Has anyone had experience with Stanford or USC on the coast? I keep reading that volume is very important. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts. Thank you in advance for your help.

If I were stage 2 I would definitely be looking for MIE (minimally invasive). The master is Dr Luketich in Pittsburgh at UPMC. Believe he has trained just about anyone doing it. There is also RFA (radio frequency ablation) used with earlier stages and that s becoming more widespread in the US.

I would imagine folks in California would come forward. If not you could check archives at Cathy's EC Cafe. The EC board has been going for years there and has lots of great info from patients and caregivers. Someone on the board went to do surgery with Luketich in the past couple weeks, and I know there are others. There are also some folks who have treated in CA on the board.  

 

After checkig out several surgeons, I am having my EC surgery done this Thursday at Mayo Hospital  in Phoenix. The surgeons name is Dawn Jaroszewski. She does a lot of these and she does them using the "less invasive" type surgery. Might want to check it out. Google her name and it should give you some info. Good Luck in finding the right one.

Payson

Lot's of info! We have interviewed UCI, UCLA, USC and Cedars. We ended up at Cedars but not for just surgery. We did not interview only surgeons. Our doctor at Cedars is great! He is Dr. Steven Miles 25 years at UCLA before coming to Cedars 8 months ago. He is an Oncologist. But Cedars is a complete package of great doctors. They are very patient oriented. There are studies that having Chemo before surgery is best! Not sure for your case though, everyone is different. Dr. Miles could probably direct you to the right people. Phone # 310-423-3277 http://www.csmc.edu/13975.html Dr. Rob McKenna was recommended by another Head and Neck surgeon. This surgeon said if he was to have surgery on his esophagus he would use Dr. McKenna. Here is a link for Dr. Rob McKenna: He is at Cedars, as well. http://www.csmc.edu/1767.html Quite a few doctors have recommended Dr. Jeffrey A. Hagen. He is really well known for Esophageal cancer. Probably the best I have heard of. I don't know if he does the Minimally Invasive surgery or not. Here is a link: http://www.doctorsofusc.com/doctor/bio/view/176 UCLA Link:Not sure who is good here! But I do know Dr. Joel Hecht is really good for EC. Not a surgeon - Medical Oncology. He could direct you to who would be at UCLA. http://www.cancer.ucla.edu/Index.aspx?page=82 I would not recommend UCI for surgery. But for early EC, I would. (Stage 0-1) I also thought Standford had a great staff for Esophageal Cancer. http://cancer.stanford.edu/gastrocolo/esophagus.html Hope this helps! My thoughts and prayers are with you! Keep us all posted! Kim

Hello,

My Mom got her surgery done at Cedars by Dr Clark Fuller, he is very good too. 

My mother just went through surgery at UPMC Pittsburgh with Dr. Luketich... He truly is the MASTER!  My mother had an enormous tumor... everything was done in a 2" incision... She was OUT of the hospital in 6 days... we stayed across the street in an apt run by the hospital.    Patti his nurse got us in on Oct 23, surgery was scheduled for Oct 31st and she is home on Nov 13 and eatting soft foods then back to regular in a few weeks.    Go to the best if you can, it is worth the trip!

 

Lisa, Ohio