The Stanford Tumor Board

After my ENT looked at my ugly throat lump, he said, “I want to send you to the Stanford tumor board.” OK—whatever that is.  I googled it, of course, and saw this little video.

My ENT told me that there would be different specialists all checking me out – they would all want a good look at the tumor from the outside (‘say aaah’) to the inside (‘we are sending this little camera down your nostril’).


My wonderful friend and sister (in-law), Laura, agreed to go with me to take notes and pictures.  We weren’t sure where we were going, so we left very early and ended up arriving about 30 minutes before the 8 AM appointment.  It took us a while to find where we were supposed to go, but we did pick up our free newspaper and checked out the lounge complete with a piano—concerts at noon—and, in general, noticed how much this building looked like a very nice hotel. 

We found the “Head and Neck Clinic” and I announced myself to the receptionist.  She handed me the forms at about 15 minutes before we were supposed to be there.  I figured I had some leisurely time to fill them out.  I got about as far as my name and a woman called: “Robin McDuff”.  The woman took me to my room and I settled down to fill out the forms.

Working on the forms

I think I got through half of one of my 6 forms before Dr. Dimitrios Colevas came in at 7:50 a.m.  He was very cute and warm and professional and explained the morning plan: all sorts of doctors would come in and do their thing and ask me various questions.  When the doctors were done, we would get a break. During our break, they would be discussing the various cases of the day, attempting to develop consensus on treatment.  For my type of tumor, the big question would be:  surgery or not.  Seftel had already told me that he was sure it would be “not”—and so far he had been right about everything, so I thought that would most likely be true—but they still had to lay hands on me.  Once consensus is reached on the various cases (and sometimes no consensus, leaving the poor patient with a huge choice), they divvy up who presents the recommendation. The appointed point person then comes and delivers their verdict—giving the treatment plan and fielding any questions.

So during the poking and prodding portion, Laura caught some action shots.  Here they are:

Here are five members of the board. Dr. Colevas is in the middle. I saw about five more doctors in addition.

One of those things is the tumor...

I only gagged twice.  But, this was one of the times—when he was feeling the lump.

Dr. Ziggy checks out the problem*

Dr. Cavelos shows me the medical system (i.e. game)

During the break (after donating blood to a research project that is trying to find a blood test for cancer), I finally got to finish my paperwork!  What a relief.  

At noon my assigned doctor, Dr. Colevas—the one who kicked off the morning—came in to give me the verdict. Laura put on a voice-recorder at this point.  He said the board started with the question:  “Who thinks she should have surgery?”  He said no hands were raised. (He did add, however, that there was probably some hot-shot robotics surgeon at Johns Hopkins who would make the contrary case, which amused me.) He explained this recommendation by drawing a picture of my tumor and the surgical problems that would exist, and he also drew a tumor that would have gotten more of a debate going.  I got his point. Then, he told me what the plan was instead of surgery (and he was joined by the radiologist for a period of time who added her piece). I summarized what he said here.

This is what I really want to emphasize – everybody was completely fantastic there.  Of the ten doctors that came through, each and every one of them was a total delight.  So was the support staff.  I mean, I don’t wish a tumor on anybody, but if you have one—beg your doctor to send you to the Stanford tumor board.



*For those who had seen the Ziggy joke before, sorry.  I just like to show my puppy.