Question about Surgical Oncologists (because of a class event)

[Alakazam123]

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We had a Surgical Oncologist come into our class, and talk about what he does for a living. The class was on Cancer Immunology, and he talked about how he was working on immunotherapy for rectal cancer. He told us that in the past rectal cancer patients often were inoperable and were poor candidates for surgery, but that with advances, things have considerably improved.

I'm curious about the following. With the success of immunotherapy, will a lot of surgical oncological procedures become obsolete? Or does immunotherapy still serve as simply an adjuvant therapy that complements surgical intervention?

I was unable to ask, because the class was packed that day as the professor announced that we'd have a surgical oncologist to talk to. I only had a chance to ask about one question.

 

[Alakazam123]

Also has earlier cancer screening had an impact on this?

 

[Seihai]

Currently, immunotherapy is a viable treatment only for very limited cancers (and specific genotypes thereof), and from what I understand it doesn't preclude surgical intervention in many of them.

I'm curious if you can give the name of this surgical oncologist working on rectal cancer immunotherapy? I'd love to read up on his research.

 

[Alakazam123]

Currently, immunotherapy is a viable treatment only for very limited cancers (and specific genotypes thereof), and from what I understand it doesn't preclude surgical intervention in many of them.

I'm curious if you can give the name of this surgical oncologist working on rectal cancer immunotherapy? I'd love to read up on his research.

Thank you for your reply!! I also was curious how long most oncologic surgery procedures take? Are they "big-whacks" lasting several hours, or is it usually shorter than that?