Gastrointestinal Cancer Care in Orange County
Many breakthrough treatments offer new hope for today’s GI and colon cancer patients. You can access this level of world-class care in Orange County. Our top-ranked physicians and other specialists help patients navigate and manage their care, from diagnosis to treatment and transition to recovery.
Why Choose City of Hope Orange County for GI Cancer Care?
- Comprehensive, compassionate care from a GI cancer care team offering groundbreaking therapies for both early and late-stage disease.
- Robotically assisted and minimally invasive surgery.
- Leading-edge clinical trials offering patients access to promising GI cancer treatments before they are readily available elsewhere.
- A collaborative and caring multidisciplinary team of cancer experts that understands your needs and background to provide a whole-person approach to treatment.
- Access to a network of highly specialized physicians and researchers who focus on your specific type of GI cancer, esophageal cancer, gastric/stomach cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, and small intestine cancer.
- Long-term survivorship and follow-up programs focused on minimizing recurrence risk and improving quality of life.
- An expanding clinical network throughout Orange County that is bringing world-renowned physicians closer to homes in the region.
Our advanced cancer treatments include:
- The latest chemotherapy and targeted therapy drugs for treating colorectal cancer.
- Access to newly developed drugs and drug combinations through our clinical trials program.
- Utlra-precise radiation therapy including helical TomoTherapy and brachytherapy to target tumors and preserve healthy issue.
- Sphincter-saving surgery that drastically reduces the need for permanent colostomy.
- Expertise in cancer that has spread to the liver, including combination surgeries with our world-renowned hepatobiliary surgery team.
- Expertise in HIPEC, or hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, a treatment that involves removing tumors, then delivering heated chemotherapy directly to the abdomen.
- Robotic-assisted surgery performed by leading experts in the da Vinci Surgical System.
For radiation oncologist Percy Lee, M.D., patients needs come first. He works closely with experts from other disciplines to offer each person an individually tailored treatment plan based upon both their clinical history and their emotional and social needs. An active listener, he aims to understand what is truly on a patient’s mind.
For Jason Salsamendi, M.D., patient care is a partnership where his role is to help people make informed decisions that best meet their needs. He followed his passion into interventional radiology in the field’s early days, when he was in medical school, after seeing the way doctors could seamlessly and artfully bring together leading-edge technology and established aspects of medical care.
Radiation oncologist Amanda Schwer, M.D., knew she wanted to be a cancer doctor for as long as she can remember, inspired by the doctors who cured a sibling who faced aggressive disease in early childhood. Her treatment approach is very much in line with City of Hope’s tradition of compassion: Quite simply, the patient always comes first. As a third-generation Orange County native, Dr. Schwer is proud to play a part in bringing extraordinary cancer care to the community that is so close to her heart.
Interventional gastroenterologist Lance Uradomo, M.D., M.P.H., listens carefully and thoughtfully to his patients to learn their problems, goals and fears. The lessons he learns from those exchanges are applied to developing a plan that will achieve the outcome that best meets their needs, including treatments that may enable patients to avoid surgery.
A Second Opinion Should Be Your First Priority
Early-stage GI cancers rarely cause early-warning symptoms. Additionally, many people believe these early signs are symptomatic of other causes. Among the most common signs are poor appetite, weight loss and abdominal pain.
With leading-edge technology and surgical expertise, City of Hope physicians can deliver outstanding GI cancer outcomes that are difficult to achieve elsewhere.
Oftentimes, cancer survivors are relieved or excited to be finished with treatment. However, they may feel lost about their future or worried that cancer could come back. City of Hope provides excellent supportive care and long-term follow-up programs to help manage the process of treatment and recovery.