New Treatment Effective for Some Difficult Tumors
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Ankesh Nigam, MD |
After surgeons removed a football-sized tumor from her abdomen three years ago, a North Country woman thought she had been through it all. To her dismay, another mass was discovered during a routine exam last year.
Although the second tumor was smaller - about the size of a grapefruit - it was not as contained as the first and her surgeon in Glens Falls felt there was danger of the mass spreading to healthy tissue if removed.
"My surgeon told me that he knew of a new surgeon at Albany Medical Center who was doing great things, and that I should go see him for help," the woman said. That surgeon was Ankesh Nigam, MD, associate professor of surgery.
Having recently resected a larger tumor in another patient using a unique treatment not currently used elsewhere, Nigam was ready for the challenge. This treatment involves tumor removal surgery and then the use of tissue expanders to move healthy tissue out of the way of the diseased area and allow for radiation therapy.
According to Dr. Nigam, this particular patient had a retroperitoneal sarcoma. Since these cancerous masses are generally asymptomatic, they may grow for many years before a patient begins experiencing any problems. The patient's tumor had invaded part of the right colon, complicating its removal. When other tissue is involved, there is the potential for major blood loss and other complications. Dr. Nigam credits the range of interdisciplinary services offered at the Medical Center for making the procedure possible.
"All this allows us to be extremely aggressive and perform cutting edge surgery that is possible only because of the back-up that is available," he says.
"The treatment offered has the potential for curing cancers that many would think are not even resectable," Dr. Nigam continues.
After safely removing the tumor and part of her colon, Dr. Nigam performed a second procedure in order to place the tissue expanders around the bowel. This enabled Jacqueline Tan, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology, to very precisely administer external beam radiation. She says the use of tissue expanders allows better margins in radiation therapy.
Drs. Nigam and Tan have performed this therapy successfully on three patients to date.
