Getting it Right the First Time
“I think we may be looking at cancer.” When patients hear those words, they immediately experience feelings of uncertainty, helplessness and the realization of mortality.
Your first chance at beating cancer is your best chance. And, your best chance is at a comprehensive cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute that features teams of cancer specialists working together in the same facility where state-of-the-science cancer research is conducted. Karmanos is one of 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the United States that have earned this prestigious designation and the only center of its kind in metro Detroit.
Among the most stressful aspects of having cancer is the sequence of office visits and time that elapses between the initial diagnosis and treatment. Cancer patients are frequently subjected to a series of appointments and tests with various specialists at different locations. In this unfortunately typical scenario, patient anxiety is further fueled by concerns whether their specialists are experienced and communicating in a thoughtful manner.
When cancer strikes, we want to know from the start that we’re doing the very best we can. We want physicians and specialists who have a depth of experience, doctors who are on top of the latest research findings and have immediate access to the latest available cancer drugs and therapies. Perhaps most importantly, we want doctors who communicate with each other.
Karmanos has 13 multidisciplinary teams; each designed and staffed specifically to ensure that patients and their families get their cancer diagnosis and treatment right the first time. Each team consists of cancer specialists who are focused on your particular cancer and who have devoted their careers to fighting the very cancer with which you are confronted. Our team members include specialists from each diagnostic, treatment and supportive care discipline including surgery, hematology oncology; radiation oncology; pathology; radiology; oncology nursing; supportive care; and, when appropriate, genetics.
Karmanos’ multidisciplinary teams thrive on collaboration and share a passion to reduce time and eliminate doubt among our patients. They first focus on making sure your diagnostic information is current and complete. When it’s not, our teams make arrangements for the testing to be done as quickly as possible, often the same day, at a facility that is convenient to you and your family. The entire team then reviews the diagnostic information and speaks directly with the physician who first examined you so that they can make a recommendation for your care that reflects the latest thinking from all of the various specialties. Your multidisciplinary team then assists you and your loved ones in deciding where your care can best be provided. Most often, cancer care can be administered in the community where you live. Sometimes the services of a highly specialized center such as the Karmanos Cancer Institute are required.
Doctors at Karmanos are also faculty members at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine. Because they teach at a leading medical school and engage in numerous cancer-related research programs, they are among the best in the world. Our physician-scientists are leaders in hundreds of ongoing grant-funded scientific investigation programs relating to cancer and participate in more than 300 clinical trials involving the latest cancer therapies. Many are recognized locally, nationally and internationally as leaders in cancer care and research, have authored manuscripts and articles in cancer-related publications and contributed to cancer textbooks.
Cancer is a complex array of diseases. New knowledge is continually accumulated on its biologic underpinnings, resulting in the development of new treatment opportunities. Clinical trials are leading the way in testing new treatments that often include a combination or sequence of treatment options and surgical techniques resulting in organ preservation and improved patient survival. These groundbreaking approaches in cancer treatment are pioneered and continually improved at nationally designated comprehensive cancer centers like Karmanos. Our patients can participate in clinical trials based on new work by Karmanos cancer physicians and scientists or studies that are part of important clinical trials conducted across the nation under the coordination of the National Cancer Institute and national cooperative groups. Karmanos’ mission focus is state-of-the-science cancer research and outstanding patient care. It is the quality and quantity of cancer research that defines Karmanos. Our fundamental responsibility is to conduct cancer research and apply that research to patient care.
Karmanos’ multidisciplinary approach to cancer care – among the first in the world – began over 30 years ago when dedicated cancer specialists tested this concept with patients suffering from a type of anal cancer. Drs. Vainutis Vaitkevicius (a medical oncologist), Norman Nigro (a surgeon) and Basil Considine (a radiation oncologist) looked for a new way to treat this malignancy that often required major surgery to remove the entire anus, leaving patients with colostomy bags for the rest of their lives. These doctors discovered a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy that cured 80 percent of these patients, eliminating the need for surgery. This team approach has become the standard of care around the world for this and all malignancies. At Karmanos, this is only way we treat cancer.
Karmanos’ multidisciplinary teams are supported by leading technologies that precisely diagnose and evaluate the disease and its treatment. Predicated on service and compassionate care, our teams evaluate patient cases daily at facilities in midtown Detroit and Farmington Hills. Our teams are most effective when incorporated early in the patient’s sequence of care – second opinions being good, first opinions better, but always best before treatment is rendered.
Multidisciplinary, prospective cancer care, linked directly to groundbreaking cancer research and experimental cancer therapies – that combination is unique and, to the cancer patient, irreplaceable. Your fight with cancer is unique to you and your family. Karmanos is uniquely positioned to help you make your first chance your best chance.
Multidisciplinary Teams
