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Esophageal Cancer / Cancer of the Esophagus

There is hope, innovation and support available for those with esophageal cancer here at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Patient Care and Treatment:
The Thoracic Oncology Program at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center has assembled a team to provide care to our patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer. The team is staffed by thoracic surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, pulmonologists, gastroenterologists, radiologists, pathologists and nurses dedicated to providing patients with the best possible care.

For patients with esophageal cancer, transhiatal esophagectomy without thoracotomy (removing the esophagus without opening the chest) was pioneered and refined at the University of Michigan by Mark Orringer, M.D. More than 2,000 patients have undergone this operation at the University of Michigan in the past 30 years, giving U-M physicians the most experience with this procedure in the United States.

The operative mortality rate for this procedure at U-M is less than 3%, with an average hospital stay of only seven days. The Thoracic Oncology Program is also a leader in the development of combined modality therapy for esophageal cancer, a therapy in which patients are treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery in an attempt to improve their chances for survival.

Research and Innovation:
The U-M Thoracic Oncology Program has a variety of clinical trials are available, ranging from chemoprevention studies to the evaluation of state-of-the-art investigational therapies. The team's expertise with emerging technologies, including:

• stereotactic radiosurgery
• radiofrequnecy ablation
• photodynamic therapy
• esophageal and airway stenting
• ultrasound-guided transbronchial/transesophageal biopsy
• video-assisted thoracoscopy

allows for less invasive options in the diagnosis and care of patients with thoracic cancers.

Support:
Since our program is part of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, our patients have access to Patient/Family Support Services. To fully understand what this means, please take time to visit the For Cancer Center Patients area of this website. We outline the services available to our patients at every point in their care.

Make an appointment/referral to the Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancer Clinic

To make a first time appointment, please call the Patient Care Center at 877-308-9111 (Monday-Friday, 8am-5:30pm EST). If you would like to refer a patient, please contact our M-Line service: 800-962-3555. For more information, visit our Appointments web page.

Still have questions?

The nurses at Cancer AnswerLine™ have answers. Call 1-800-865-1125 and you'll get a personal response from one of our registered nurses, who have years of experience in caring for people with cancer.

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updated 04/2012