Your Health: Revising esophageal cancer treatment

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Esophageal cancer is cancer of the long tube that runs from the throat to the stomach. Traditionally, the treatment involves surgery.

But afterward, there is a risk of the esophagus leaking, which could cause fatal infections.

Now, surgeons at Mount Sinai in New York have pioneered a modification that significantly cuts that risk.

Lou Martinez collects coins, clocks, and other knick-knacks. He loves things that have a long history. But in 2018, Martinez’s health took a turn. He was working nights and had a sudden, serious scare.

“I couldn’t swallow my food,” he said. “I couldn’t swallow water, juice, nothing. Everything laid right there, and I panicked.”

After years of struggling with heartburn, doctors diagnosed Martinez with esophageal cancer.

“The biggest treatment with esophageal is to get it out,” explains Dr. Raja Flores, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai.

But patients can have complications at the site where surgeons reconnect the esophagus and stomach.

“And that needs to heal. And when that doesn’t heal, the contents leak out,” said Dr. Flores. “A leak can be out of control where the patient is sick. Sepsis can potentially lead to death.”

Dr. Flores and his colleagues have revised the procedure in a way that maximizes good blood flow to the area.

“We figured out that you can do the operation without removing, without cutting that right gastric artery. And it’s not just the artery, but it’s the artery, the vein,” Dr. Flores said. “You want to make sure you keep everything intact.”

The revised surgery lowers the complication rate from 25% of the patients to just under 2%.

At first, Martinez was afraid to have surgery, but Dr. Flores convinced him it would be lifesaving. Now that he’s recovered, Martinez says, unlike the antiques he collects, these days, he feels brand new.

Dr. Flores says the new technique also decreases the surgical time from seven hours to two and a half hours.

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