Digestive Cancers

The variety of tumors that affect all organs of the digestive system requires advanced knowledge of these diseases and coordination among different skills to develop a diagnosis as well as a treatment strategy.

What is the Digestive Cancers Program ?

The Digestive Cancers Program established by the Cancer Center supports patients with tumors of the digestive system, including:

• colorectal cancer
• cancer of the esophagus
• stomach cancer
• anal cancer
• pancreatic cancer
• liver cancer

All types of digestive tumors and rare abdominal tumors, such as gastrointestinal endocrine tumors, are also treated thanks to the many skills brought together in this program.  

What expertise and partnerships are involved ?

The Digestive Cancers Program brings together, for the patient, HUG's cutting-edge expertise, both medical and surgical, that's required to ensure excellent care for these cancers.

To ensure a quality diagnosis and a treatment strategy tailored to each disease, the program interacts with the different hospital divisions and constantly collaborates with the Center for Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Disorders and the Neuroendocrine Tumors Program.

Close collaboration between medical and surgical teams allows for the development of a treatment strategy for every case, arising from a consensus among all experts, after a peer-based case discussion. It also allows for the suggestion of, where necessary, treatment techniques that call upon a variety of expertise:

• liver metastases resection
• integrated treatment of gastric tumors (chemotherapy, surgery and additional radiotherapy if needed)
• combination of hepatic intra-arterial chemotherapy with systemic chemotherapy
• stenting where there is visceral obstruction and destruction of tumor lesions
• embolization by radio frequency or radioembolization
• intraperitoneal chemotherapy program (HIPEC) for neoplastic involvement of peritoneal carcinosis.