Rectal Cancer
If you or someone you love has rectal cancer, we can help. At Memorial Healthcare System, our team of nationally recognized colorectal surgeons are highly trained to treat primary and metastatic rectal cancer using sophisticated techniques.
We’ve given hope to hundreds of patients diagnosed with rectal cancer, using a combination of innovative surgical techniques, promising new chemotherapy agents and radiation therapy. We understand cancer can affect your emotional well-being as well as your physical health, so our cancer support team provides a range of critical services during your entire cancer treatment.
How We Care for Rectal Cancer at Memorial
Memorial’s community-based program provides comprehensive cancer screening, cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment services for all stages of rectal cancer. We develop a plan with you that’s designed to best treat your disease while maximizing your quality of life. You benefit from our:
- Exceptional care, small community feel: At Memorial, we provide access to many of the same rectal cancer treatment options offered at larger teaching hospitals but without having to travel beyond Broward County. Our team of specialists are always available to promptly address your questions and concerns.
- Experience: Our fellowship-trained colorectal surgeons have extra expertise to diagnose and treat even rare rectal cancers. They care for more rectal cancer patients than physicians without this training, which helps them perform intricate surgeries more precisely.
- Surgical precision: Our surgeons have unparalleled experience in the latest rectal cancer treatment techniques. These include methods such as total mesorectal excision, which lowers the chance of cancer coming back and avoids the need for a permanent ostomy (a surgical procedure that reroutes waste from the intestines out of the body when part of the bowel is diseased or removed). Our nurses also are specially trained to help you manage this life change, should it be necessary.
- Advanced technology and testing: We stage disease with rectal cancer-specific ultrasound. We also use specialized pathology tests to examine all rectal cancers for genetic defects. These tools help us help determine treatments that will work best for your specific condition.
- Team mindset: No two cancers act exactly alike, and our combination of multidisciplinary expertise means your health is in excellent hands. Our skilled bench of specialists includes medical oncologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists and pathologists who work closely to determine which treatments (and in what order) are most likely to offer you the best results.
- Access to clinical trials: Our physicians work with research experts and top medical institutions nationwide, including the National Cancer Institute, to find new ways to more effectively prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.
- Wide-ranging support: A cancer diagnosis serves up many unknowns. We help you handle whatever comes next, with skill and compassion. From patient navigators to comfort care specialists, our team is here to make cancer treatment and recovery less stressful on you and your loved ones. Learn more about support services for cancer patients.
- Care for your whole health: Our team includes genetic counselors, psychologists and integrative medicine specialists who are trained to support your emotional well-being as well as your physical health.
Our Comprehensive Rectal Cancer Treatments
If you’ve been diagnosed with rectal cancer, your cancer team will sit down with you to discuss your treatment options. The right plan for you will be based on your personal goals as well as treatment benefits, risks and side effects.
Treatment options for rectal cancer depend on the cancer stage, location and how far the cancer has spread. Your physician may recommend surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy (or some combination of these therapies) for your treatment plan.
Learn more about gastrointestinal and colon cancer treatments.
Contact Us
For more information about rectal cancer care, call 954-265-9520 for surgical oncology, or 954-844-1617 for colon and rectal surgery.
