Colon Cancer – When Do I Need a Medical Oncologist?

Transcript

So you’ve had your staging done and you’re back to see your surgeon. At that point, the discussion may be, do I see a medical oncologist next, or do we proceed with surgery? Reasons to go and see a medical oncologist would be things like metastatic disease or stage four disease, or if you have a rectal cancer, if you need preoperative chemotherapy or chemotherapy and radiation combined. At that time, you would potentially be referred to a medical oncologist and a radiation oncologist for evaluation. Sometimes we’ll have discussion at a multidisciplinary tumor board with regards to your staging and your tumor, and we can all make a decision together with regards to the next steps moving forward.