Dr. Sybilann Williams: A gynecologic oncologist is a physician who has four years of training in obstetrics and gynecology, and then a further three to four years of training in the field of women’s cancers. So those cancers that are unique to women. They do chemotherapy and they act as the captain of the ship in terms of directing the care of the patient. There are multiple different approaches that are used for these types of cancers and we certainly use all of the cutting edge technologies that we can to provide the best care possible for each of these. For some patients it might be surgery for others it might be a combination of surgery and radiation. For other patients it might be chemotherapy.
Intraperitoneal chemotherapy is chemotherapy that is directed directly to the abdominal cavity. The certain types of gynecologic cancers such as ovarian cancer can spread within the abdominal cavity itself, primary parietal carcinoma can also do that, and basically intraperitoneal chemotherapy involves instilling a solution of chemotherapy drugs directly into the area that’s at risk. The advantage to it is that the cancer cells themselves are bathed in a solution of the chemotherapy, it doesn’t have to get there through the blood stream, and there is a significant increase in the concentration of chemotherapy drug that the patient’s, actually, well that the cancer cells are exposed to. So we strive to individualize the treatment while providing the most up-to-date and best treatments that we can for patients.
The Gynecologic Oncology Program at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Midwestern Regional Medical Center (Midwestern) specializes in treating women with cancer of the reproductive organs, including cervical, ovarian, uterine, vaginal, and vulvar cancers.
Listen to Dr. Sybilann Williams discuss gynecologic oncology.