What specialist is in charge?

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oldbeauty
oldbeauty Member Posts: 366 Member
edited December 2023 in Colorectal Cancer #1

Hello all,

I am a migrant from the Uterine Cancer board. Following a screening colonoscopy I was found to have an invasive moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma in my ascending colon. It is a new primary cancer, not a metastatis of UC.

I will be having further diagnostic imaging done soon, and I know that surgery is ahead. My question is who's in charge afterward? Is it the gastroenterologist, or the surgical oncologist? And if it turns out that immunotherapy is possible, who analyzes that, the surgeon or a medical oncologist?

I really would appreciate some direction at this early stage. I am a hands-on, question -asking self-advocating cancer patient. I need to know who the players are here.

Thank you for any guidance or tips the community here would care to provide.

Best wishes to all,

Oldbeauty

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  • littlex
    littlex Member Posts: 3 Member
    #2
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    Hi Oldbeauty, I'm sorry you are dealing with yet another cancer. My wife was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer in 2013, she had 60% of her kidney removed. It had not spread outside the kidney. She didn't get any additional treatments except the surgery. It's 10 1/2 years since the surgery and she still have check ups with her Surgeon. Now it's every 2 years, she has just a CT scan. She asked when we went last month, if she can break up with him now, he laughed, and said no I like to follow up with my patients. I'll see you in two years.

    Good luck I wish you the best

  • oldbeauty
    oldbeauty Member Posts: 366 Member
    #3
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    https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1711387#Comment_1711387

    Thank you, littlex. That is kind of you. Best wishes to you and your wife. Oldbeauty

  • Trubrit
    Trubrit Member Posts: 5,796 Member
    edited December 2023 #4
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    Hello and welcome to the Colorectal forum.

    I can't even imagine - well, a teensy teensy bit - what it must be like to be diagnosed with a secondary Caner. It was bad enough getting the news that my Cancer had spread; so my heart goes out to you.

    I don't KNOW the answer to your question, but I would THINK it might be your Oncologist. When my CRC spread to my liver, I was off to the liver surgeon, but once the surgery was over, back to the my Oncologist.

    It is wonderful to hear that you are an active part of your own health. No point in being a shrinking violet, when it comes to life changing, life saving decisions.

    I am hoping to become more active on the forum - though I am still heartily disappointed in the new layout, and miss my old buddies, who feel the same way - in 2024.

    I am a living testament that Stage IV can be controlled. I won't say beat. I can't say I beat it. That doesn't sit well with me, but I am surviving, and I feel that I owe it to others who come here, to share my 'wealth' of experience. HA! That sure makes me sound full of it. I'm not. I just want to help. Help other see a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how long their tunnel is.

    I hope to see you here again, with updates on how you are doing.

    Tru

  • oldbeauty
    oldbeauty Member Posts: 366 Member
    #5
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    https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1711427#Comment_1711427

    Thank you, Trubrit, for the generous welcome.

    I have a CT and 2 surgical consults coming up. Provided it's confined to the colon, I expect to have surgery around mid-January; otherwise, I'll be referred for chemo or something first. The gastoenterologist, and others, have told me the surgeon drives the bus now. Yes, it is quite a shock to have a second primary while the first is ongoing (though in remission as of last March). I am trying to wrap my head around it all.

    I will ask more questions as I know more about my Dx and prognosis and Tx options.

    Thanks again, and holiday greetings. Best wishes, Oldbeauty

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