Why a Multidisciplinary Approach to Liver Tumors Matters

By Nizar Zein, MD

While malignant tumors of the liver remain a major cause of death in patients with liver diseases, treatment options have recently improved significantly.  Only a few years ago, liver cancer was considered a universally fatal disease and patients were given few short months to live.  Now, curative therapies are available to many patients with liver cancer.

The choice of the type of treatment depends on several factors, including the patient’s age and degree of liver dysfunction, among others.  Treatment options include surgical (either resection of the cancer only, or replacement of the entire liver through a liver transplant operation), non-surgical invasive (radiofrequency ablation or embolization therapy), or medical (use of medications).  Often, we use a combination of all of these modalities.  Given the diversity of treatment options and the need for a high level of expertise in different areas, a multidisciplinary approach is needed.

That is why Cleveland Clinic’s Digestive Disease Institute has established a new Liver Tumor Clinic to provide multidisciplinary team management of liver tumors. The new clinic is not only a place to bring the best thinking together, but also a place where thought leaders can meet and take care of a patient in a one-stop shopping approach.

The new clinic will improve patient experience by eliminating multiple appointments with different physicians at various locations.  It will provide referring physicians with a centralized point of contact, facilitating access and improving communication.  It also will create an unprecedented, comprehensive liver tumor database that will enable our team members to collect data and conduct research that may one day further improve the care that we can offer patients.

Its personnel include transplant and hepatobiliary surgeons, hepatologists, interventional radiologists, oncologists, a nurse manager, a research manager and a scheduler.

Vital Stats:

• Cleveland Clinic is the fourth-largest provider of liver transplants in the world.
• Average wait time for a liver transplant at Cleveland Clinic is six months – roughly half the time as other U.S. centers.
• Survival rates (one year) for liver transplants top 90 percent, exceeding the United States
  national average.

About the Cleveland Clinic Digestive Disease Institute

Cleveland Clinic Digestive Disease Institute (DDI) is the first of its kind to unite all specialists within one unique, fully integrated model of care - aimed at optimizing patient experience.  At DDI we offer patients the most advanced, safest and proven medical and surgical treatments primarily focused on the gastrointestinal tract.  Our departments include: 

• Gastroenterology & Hepatology
• Colorectal Surgery
• Hepato-pancreto-biliary and Transplant Surgery
• Center for Human Nutrition

The Digestive Disease Institute has been ranked second in the nation by U.S.News & World Report’s Best Hospitals Survey since 2003, and first in Ohio since 1990.

SAVE THE DATE!

Webinar: Liver Transplant
Charles Miller, MD and Nizar Zein, MD
November 11, 2009
1:00 – 2:00 pm

Complimentary Nurse Contact Hour(s) will be provided.  Please stay tuned for details!

There is no conflict of interest on the part of planners or speakers. There is no commercial support or sponsorship for this event. Attendance at the entire event and submission of an evaluation is required to obtain the contact hour certificate.

Cleveland Clinic (OH-045/10-1-12) is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the Ohio Nurses Association (OBN-001-91), an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.