Ontario First for GI Patients

Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre is the first regional cancer centre in Ontario to combine leading-edge “inside-the-body” endoscopic ultrasound imaging with direct access to comprehensive care for patients with gastrointestinal malignancy.

Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) is a diagnostic technology combining external ultrasound imaging with an endoscope, which is a small, flexible camera with a light and a lens on the end. This technology is primarily used to take images inside the body, to better define problems identified in the gastrointestinal tract and to perform non-surgical tissue biopsies.

“This unprecedented collaboration between the teams from the Division of Gastroenterology and the Odette Cancer Centre allows for more seamless, ‘one-stop’ care for those patients diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancers, and provides them with greater imaging and treatment options,” says Dr. Linda Rabeneck, Chief, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook, one of North America’s largest comprehensive cancer centres.

“Endoscopic Ultrasound is not widely available and is much sought after in the community. This diagnostic and therapeutic imaging technology offers greater opportunity for earlier interventions for cancer patients due to its ability to detect smaller lesions than can be identified with outside-the-body imaging,” says Dr. Lawrence Cohen, Director, Division of Gastroenterology and Medical Endoscopy, Sunnybrook.

“The technology also helps oncologists accurately stage patients for chemotherapy or radiation therapy before surgery (neoadjuvant therapy) and to identify patients who may or may not benefit from cancer surgery,” says Dr. Cohen, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto.

Endoscopic Ultrasound provides greater definition and more accurate diagnosis of identified problems, through closer-to-the-body-tissue views and minimally invasive sampling of tissue from areas of concern as an option to surgical biopsy. The technology can also be used for targeted pain control therapeutics.

Gastrointestinal problems relates to inflammation, infection or suspected cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, small or large bowel or rectum, pancreas, liver and biliary tree. The Endoscopic Ultrasound suite has been generously donated to Sunnybrook by the Odette family.