“We are at the forefront in the field of oncology in the U.A.E. We specialize in the management of cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, gallbladder, bile duct and pancreas.”

Few specific features of the common gastrointestinal cancers are given below.

Esophageal cancer: This is the cancer arising from the food pipe. It usually occurs in middle aged to elderly people and typically presents with difficulty in swallowing. It can be easily diagnosed by doing an endoscopy to look inside the food-pipe.

“Our surgery experts in Dubai perform the most advanced esophageal resection surgeries for esophageal cancer.”

Gastric cancer: This is the cancer arising from the stomach. It is common in people from South East Asia and usually presents with abdominal pain, weight loss and anemia. Middle aged to elderly individuals who have recent onset indigestion, upper abdominal pain, loss of appetite, weight loss and acidity that is not getting better with medicines should get an endoscopy to make sure that they do not have a cancer of the stomach. Stomach cancer if diagnosed early can be treated by surgically removing the cancer. This surgery is called gastrectomy.

Intestinal cancer: This is the cancer that arises from the small bowel. It usually presents with features of intestinal blockage in which patient has abdominal pain and vomiting or with intestinal bleeding in which a patient may pass blood in the stools. A CT scan is required for diagnosis. Such cancers can be easily treated by removal of the affected part of the intestine.

Colon and rectal cancer: This is the cancer arising from the large bowel. It is one of the commonest forms of cancer. Screening for this cancer is recommended for all healthy individuals above the age of 50 years. Screening is best done by colonoscopy once every 10 years or by testing the stool for occult blood once a year. Patients with colon cancer present with change in bowel habits, usually with constipation and bleeding in the stools. Colon cancer is one of the most well treatable cancers. Colectomy or surgical removal of the colon can cure early cancer. For advanced colon cancer that has spread beyond the colon, there are good chemotherapy drugs available.

“Our colorectal surgery experts in U.A.E. have a vast experience in treating colorectal cancer and most colectomy surgeries are performed laparoscopically with tiny cuts on the abdominal wall. There is no large incision and this helps in less pain and rapid recovery after the surgery.”

Liver cancer: Liver cancer usually occurs in patients who have liver cirrhosis. Patients with hepatitis B and C are also at risk for developing liver cancer. At risk patients should undergo regular screening with a Liver Ultrasound scan once every six months. Small cancers that are detected on screening can be cured by surgery or radio-frequency ablation, in which heat is used to burn the tumor. Patients with larger tumours have abdominal pain, jaundice and weight loss. Patients with large cancer or those patients who have features of liver failure alongwith the cancer need a liver transplantation. Our experts in Dubai will give you best advise on possible treatment options.

“Liver resection surgery can be done by our expert liver surgeons in Dubai itself. If liver transplantation is required, it can be done at our centre in India.”

Pancreatic cancer: This is common in men above the age of 50. It presents with abdominal or back pain, weight loss and jaundice. Pancreatic cancer is quite difficult to detect early. Small pancreatic cancer can be cured by a major surgery known as Whipple’s pancreato-duodenectomy. Our surgery experts in Dubai are one of the few in the middle-east region experienced in this surgery. Cure for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer is difficult. Jaundice caused by pancreatic cancer is due to blockage of bile ducts and this can be relieved by special endoscopic procedure – ERCP done by our experts in Dubai.

Cholangiocarcinoma: This is cancer arising from the bile duct. It is an uncommon cancer and usually occurs in elderly males. It presents with jaundice due to blockage of the bile ducts. CT scan and ERCP is required for diagnosis.  Our surgery experts in Dubai and highly experienced in surgical resection of this type of cancer. Elderly individuals who develop jaundice (yellow eyes, deep yellow urine) and itching of skin are quite likely to have bile duct obstruction due to a cancer.

Gallbladder cancer: This is a common cancer in certain parts of the world lie North India, Chile and some areas of South East Asia. It usually presents with abdominal pain and jaundice. It is usually advanced at the time of diagnosis and spreads rapidly to the liver since the gallbladder is located just below the liver. Early cancers can undergo surgical resection. The outcome for advanced cancers is not good.

Procedures done by Onco-Surgeons

Oncosurgery is not a routine surgery and cannot be done by a general surgeon. Oncosurgery is specific surgical science that requires special training and expertise. Our surgical team in Dubai has one of the largest experience of treating gastrointestinal cancers in Dubai. Oncosurgery is not a standalone treatment.  Other modalities such as chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy may be required either before or after the oncosurgery. Overall cancer treatment is a team based approach and our cancer treatment team in Dubai works exclusively on this principle so as to provide optimum care to each patient.  Treatment is offered only after a detailed discussion of each patient in a multi-disciplinary tumour board meeting. The various surgical procedures offered by our expert surgical team in Dubai are described below.

Excision Biopsy: A small suspected cancer lump or a piece of it is surgically removed and analysed in the laboratory for presence of cancer cells. if cancer is proven, a bigger operation is done to remove the whole tumor. This is generally done in the case of breast cancers.

Curative Surgical Resection: It is the most common type of surgery done for any cancer. The whole tumor alongwith the surrounding tissue is removed. If the tumor is localized to one area and has not spread to other parts of the body, then surgical resection can provide cure to the patient. This form of surgery can be done for breast cancer, colon cancer, stomach cancer, and liver cancer. After surgery, it is sometimes necessary to give few cycles of chemotherapy or radiotherapy to make sure that any remaining cancer cells in the area of the tumour are also killed.

Debulking Surgery: Sometimes it is not possible to remove the tumor completely, then efforts are made to remove as much of the tumor as possible, following which chemotherapy and radiotherapy are given to treat the remainder of the cancer.

Reconstructive Surgery: This is usually done by plastic surgeons and the aim is to restore the body’s appearance. It is commonly done as part of breast cancer treatment.

Laparoscopic Surgery: Conventional surgery often requires large incisions and is more stressful for the patient’s with long recovery time. Now with advancement of medical techniques, various minimally invasive surgical options are available that have short recovery time and cause less pain. Many of the traditional open cancer surgeries can now be done by keyhole incisions (laparoscopically) with the same result. Some of the cancers that can be treated laparoscopically are colon cancer, intestinal cancer, stomach cancer and esophageal cancer.

“Our cancer specialist and expert surgeons in U.A.E. are capable of performing all of these advanced minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical procedures that ensures faster recovery.”

Endoscopic Surgery: Very early and small cancers of the stomach and colon can be cut and removed with the help of advanced endoscopic techniques known as endoscopic mucosal resection.

Radio-frequency ablation- In this procedure, RF waves are used to generate heat which kills cancer cells. It is done for small liver cancers.

“Our cancer and surgery experts in the Emirates are experienced to handle all complicated cases of gastrointestinal cancers. Apart from surgery, our team will also organize chemotherapy, radiotherapy and rehabilitation for all patients.” 

We fully understand, what a cancer patient and his family goes through during the course of diagnosis to treatment of cancer. Our team of cancer experts in Dubai in co-ordination with all their allied team takes a compassionate and comprehensive approach to take care of all your medical and psychological needs so that you can get effective cancer treatment in Dubai comparable to anywhere else in the world. Please feel free to visit us to get more information on cancer treatment with our group in Dubai.