Getting a diagnosis of a gastrointestinal cancer like stomach, colon, or pancreatic cancer is hard news. And when the cancer spreads…
"So once patients have peritoneal carcinomatosis or spread to the abdominal cavity, they're pretty much told they only have a few months to live," said Dr. Mio Kitano, a surgical oncologist at UT Health San Antonio. Her research focuses on gastrointestinal tumors and malignancies.
"Most people think carcinomatosis is a death sentence, but there are different treatment modalities that I offer to patients. And that's something that is pretty unique to UT Health San Antonio," Kitano said.
One of them is Cytoreductive surgery, which she calls the big surgery. It targets cancer on the surface of the abdominal organs.
"We strip the peritoneal lining that has all the deposits of the tumors and it's almost like peeling the wallpaper off of the wall," Kitano said.
Then they remove any dispensable organs that have tumor deposits, like the spleen and parts of the small and large bowel. Then, there's hot chemotherapy.
"So the whole idea is to remove everything. But then anything that I cannot remove — any microscopic cells that can be left behind — is that the heated chemo, sterilizes or takes care of those microscopic cells," she said. "So it is a pretty dramatic surgery.
Science & Medicine is a collaboration between TPR and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio that explores how scientific discovery in San Antonio advances the way medicine is practiced everywhere.
