Specialist surgical unit for ‘uncommon’ cancer to move
SPECIALIST surgery for patients with the relatively “uncommon” cancer of the oesophagus and stomach is likely to move from St Mary’s hospital, in Paddington, to Hammersmith and a new specialist surgical unit.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is planning to move its renowned surgery this spring following an NHS England review, which says specialist surgeons should do a minimum of 15 to 20 resections (operations to remove a portion of a body part) each year.
It means that the team at Imperial College Trust need to see around 100 patients a year for oesophagogastric (OG) surgery.
The plan will see the team working with surgeons working in hepatobiliary – liver, pancreatic, biliary and gall bladder disorders (HPB) – to create “one of the largest and best performing upper gastrointestinal units in the country,” according to trust chief executive Professor Tim Orchard.
Oesophago-gastric cancer is relatively uncommon and makes up fewer than 4% of all cancer diagnoses nationally every year.
Symptoms of oesophago-gastric cancer include having heartburn most days for more than three weeks and food feeling like it is sticking in the throat when swallowing.
People can also have unexplained weight loss, have trapped wind, feel full or bloated after eating or have pain or discomfort in their upper stomach area.
Professor Orchard told Westminster Council’s family and people services policy and scrutiny committee that no patients from Westminster need OG surgery at St Mary’s during 2017-18.
On average two Westminster residents each year need the surgery and committee chairman Cllr Jonathan Glanz said it a “highly sophisticated and complex area using specific expertise”, adding: “Putting them within the same group on the same sight makes sense.”
In a letter to the committee, chairman Professor Orchard said Westminster patients will still go to St Mary’s for tests and follow up outpatients appointments and Charing Cross for chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The award-winning team see an average of 50 patients each year and another 10 people are referred from across the country because they need complex operations for benign conditions.
Professor Orchard added: “We believe the co-location of OG cancer surgery and HPB surgery in a new specialist surgical unit at Hammersmith Hospital will protect our excellent cancer outcomes and improve the experience of our patients.”
More information is available about oesophago-gastric cancer at https://www.nhs.uk/be-clear-oncancer/symptoms/oesophagogastric-cancer.