[music] There is a place where they can get it all done at one place. Our hope is to turn
this disease away from being a medical curiosity into something that at the end of the day
we can say that it’s a disease that’s curable.
A few years ago, I treated a patient with Carcinoid tumors, who had very extensive disease,
I was told that she had no options for treatment and should really go home and live out her
life it’s a slow-growing tumor. And there wasn’t anything to do. Through a variety
of people, she came in contact with me and at the time, I proposed to her something fairly
radical in trying to get rid of the tumors which she signed up for, which is pretty tough;
couple of surgeries she had to go through, and she’s really been a crusader for us
since then. And what has happened as a result of this one patient is that we’ve seen a
number of other patients with Carcinoid and other neuroendocrine tumors, and has prompted
us to set up a specialized clinic at The Nebraska Medical Center. We have now set up this multi-disciplinary
clinic consisting of hepatobilin surgeons and medical oncologists, we even have a family
care practitioner; a family doctor, at the clinic, helping us with this. We have a number
of nurses. We’ve employed or in the process of employing research nurse to help us collect
clinical and biological data and so what we have established is a focal point for patients
to be able to refer to with us these particular tumors which are, as I said before, uncommon
and not many people know what to do with it. So what the patient can experience is this;
he or she will be seen by a couple (even three) physicians in that afternoon, ranging from
someone taking a history and physical examination, and meeting with the medical oncologists and
then meeting with the surgical oncologists (the surgeon) and then probably meeting possibly
with all three (as we discussed the case). Obviously we’d sometimes with investigation
that have not been done and that’s really the normal. We’d then set up the laboratory
tests, radiological investigations. And a lot of those can be done from where the patient
comes from and information can be sent back to us. But what we invision and what the patients
can expect is a thorough consultation not only with just one physician but with a few
physicians in a multi-disciplinary team where they get the opinions of both the surgical
side and the medical side.
We’ve been setting up this clinic; one of the first things we consulted with was the
cancer center with Dr. Cowen. He’s offered us his full resources to be able to do not
just clinical research but laboratory research in this disease. Problem is there are a few
drug trials going on in spotty places throughout the country, but that’s about all. I could
probably count on one hand the number of people really doing any laboratory research to these
diseases. The first step that we have done is employ research nurses whose then going
to obviously realize with scientists and hopefully we’re going to extend the clinical research
into laboratory research which we would then be able to retranslate it back into clinical
results at the end of the day. What we’re offering (you know, what we want to make sure
the patients have) is first and foremos) a source of information they can turn to to
be able to get the latest and most up-to-date information options that are available to
them. They don’t necessarily have to have those forms of treatment given or administered
to them here, but they need to be made aware of what is available for them.
We’re in the center of the country; access is easy and we can offer expert advice, research
and therapy, all at one place.