A non-surgical approach for colorectal cancer

The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's Ian Paquette and patient Patty Goering were featured in a Jacksonville television station News4Jax report on nonsurgical options to treat colorectal cancer.

Surgery is the most common treatment for colorectal cancer, which often leads to patients using a colostomy bag for the rest of their life.

After being diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer, Goering was one of the first patients at the Cancer Center offered a new approach. Rather than surgery, Goering was prescribed a radiation and chemotherapy regimen five days a week for six weeks, followed by four additional months of chemo.

“She was one of our first patients here that we tried this strategy for,” said Paquette, MD, Cancer Center physician researcher and professor and chief in the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery in the Department of Surgery in UC's College of Medicine. “Maybe even five years ago, all of those patients would’ve gotten a surgery because that’s the location that the tumor started."

Today, Goering is cancer free and focused on her family's future.

“Watching my sons turn into adults and start their lives and just staying around for all the milestones in their lives,” she said.

Watch the News4Jax report, or read the original story on Ivanhoe News.

Featured photo at top of a medical professional holding a colonoscope. Photo/robertprzybysz/iStock.