After having tests to diagnosis and assess your oesophageal cancer, you will be invited to meet the upper GI team in an outpatient appointment. This could be with a combination of a consultant surgeon, consultant oncologist, and an upper GI clinical nurse specialist.

Treatment options are determined at a weekly meeting of specialists where all the test results are discussed. A lot of different people are involved in making these decisions, including surgeons, oncologists (cancer specialists), radiologists (imaging specialists), histopathologists (experts in tissue analysis) and cancer nurse specialists. This meeting is called the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting. This means that the right decisions can be made with you based on you as an individual and your test results.

In general, the treatment options are listed below. These will be explained to you in detail depending on your results and your fitness to undergo these treatments.

Curative intent

Chemoradiotherapy alone
Surgery alone
Chemoradiotherapy and surgery
Chemotherapy and surgery

Palliative treatment

Chemotherapy
Immunotherapy
Stent insertion

Treatment for oesophago-gastric cancer

Curative intent

Palliative treatment