Gastrointestinal cancer treatment at The Christ Hospital Health Network

If you are diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer, it's natural to feel frightened. We understand your concerns, and will do everything we can to help ease your anxiety and make sure you feel supported. You'll find yourself in caring, capable hands at The Christ Hospital Health Network.

Our team of cancer specialists will carefully craft your treatment plan. Our goal is to make sure your therapies are effective and well-coordinated.

Your treatment plan will be based on your specific type of cancer, and whether it is early or advanced. You may receive a combination of medical, surgical or radiation treatments, including:

• Chemotherapy—drugs that kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.

• Targeted therapies—drugs that target specific tumor cells to make sure they do not grow or spread. Our doctors perform genetic testing of tumors to see whether patients are eligible for targeted therapy.
  

• Immunotherapy – drugs that activate the immune system to kill the cancer cells
  

• Radiation therapy—a treatment that uses radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Our doctors perform "external" radiation therapy (where a machine outside the body aims radiation at the tumor). They also perform "internal" radiation therapy. This includes placing tiny capsules of radioactive material near or directly into a tumor.

• Stereotactic body radiation therapy is a new radiation therapy that allows high doses of radiation to be given to a tumor while sparing the surrounding tissue.  Christ Hospital is the only hospital in the area to offer this treatment using the EDGE technology.

• Chemoembolization—doctors inject drugs directly into blood vessels that feed a tumor, usually to treat liver cancer.

• Surgery–often used to remove cancerous tissue, tumors or organs. Our surgeons perform many minimally invasive and "open" procedures. These range from liver resection and gallbladder removal to biliary stent and drain placement.