Oesophago-gastric cancer

Clinics

Oesophago-gastric cancer clinic at Charing Cross Hospital 

Outpatients department
First floor
Charing Cross Hospital
Fulham Palace Road
London W6 8RF

Oesophago-gastric cancer clinic at Hammersmith Hospital 

Outpatients department
Ground floor
A block
Hammersmith Hospital
Du Cane Road
London W12 0HS

Oesophago-gastric cancer clinic at St Mary’s Hospital 

Outpatients department
Ground floor
Surgical Innovation Centre (Paterson Building) 
St Mary’s Hospital
Praed Street
London W2 1NY

Please note: The Surgical Innovation Centre (Paterson Building) can be accessed via South Wharf Road. 

Contacts for patients

If you have been diagnosed with oesophageal or gastric cancer and there is anything you need to ask, or you feel you need someone to talk to while you are waiting to come into hospital for treatment, please contact the Macmillan cancer navigator service.

Meet the team

Diagnosed patients are fully supported by our specialist oesophago-gastric cancer multidisciplinary team (MDT), consisting of oncologists (cancer experts), surgeons, nurse specialists and other professionals.

Upper gastrointestinal consultant surgeons

Professor George Hanna
Mr Krishna Moorthy
Mr Christopher Peters

Consultant clinical oncologists

Dr Danielle Power
Dr Edward Park
Dr Mark Harrison

Consultant gastroenterologists

Dr Jonathan Hoare
Dr Thakis Vlavianos

Consultant radiologists

Dr Marc Pelling, interventional radiologist 
Dr Dominic Blunt
Dr Robert Thomas

Consultant histopathologists

Professor Rob Goldin
Dr Jo Lloyd
Dr Pat Cohen

Onco-geriatrics

Dr David Shipway
Professor George Hanna

Clinical consultant, psychology

Dr Alex King

Dietetics

Claudia Rueb
Veronica Dick

Physiotherapy

May Nell
Louise McCelland

Exercise and fitness

Hayley Osborn

MDT coordinator

Jenny Mistry

Patient information

Before your appointment

You will be seen within a week of your referral. You will be sent a letter to attend an appointment or diagnostic test with our gastroenterology team. This letter will outline any preparation needed before your appointment.

We encourage you to bring a partner, relative, close friend or carer to your appointments, as you will need to discuss your condition, which could mean discussing good or bad news.

Please wear comfortable loose-fitting clothes, as you may need to undress in order for some investigations or examinations to be performed.

If you are taking any medication at home it would be helpful if you could bring that with you to your appointment.

The most common first diagnostic test will be a gastroscopy (also called endoscopy or ‘OGD’), which is a small camera passed through your mouth and down your throat to visualise the lining of your oesophagus or stomach. This investigation can be performed at Charing Cross, Hammersmith or St Mary’s hospitals so please make sure you know where your appointment is booked prior to the day.

If you fail to attend your appointment once, or cancel your appointment on two occasions, you will be discharged back to your GP or original referrer.

During your appointment

When you arrive please self check-in at the clinic reception, listed in your appointment letter.

Please note that we are a teaching hospital, so medical students may be present for some appointments. If you do not wish to have them in the room please let the nurse or doctor know and the students will be asked to step outside.

At your first appointment a senior member of the team, either a senior doctor or a senior specialist nurse, will meet you and assess your case. This may take anything from half an hour to forty minutes depending on the diagnosis and findings in clinic.

The clinician reviewing you will ask you questions about your symptoms, past medical history, social situation, any medication or allergies and your family’s medical history.

After these questions it may be necessary to perform an abdominal examination, where you lie on a couch and the clinician will examine your abdomen for any abnormalities. The clinician may then decide to refer you for further investigation, all of which will be explained to you.

After your appointment

If during your appointment a clinician recommended that you have a gastroscopy you will be asked to deliver a request form to the endoscopy department so you can be allocated a date. You should receive a call two to seven days after this to confirm your availability for the test, followed by a letter once a date is confirmed with you.

If the clinician wanted you to have a CT scan, MRI scan, barium scan, EUS or staging laparoscopy the clinician will book these electronically in the clinic and the scanning department will contact you by letter informing you when the test will take place.

If a diagnosis of cancer is made, the exact location and grade of the cancer determines the treatment you will have. This can only be decided once all investigations have been completed. Your case will be discussed at a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting where all clinical experts in oesophageal and gastric cancer look in detail at your scans and other results of investigations.

This is a bit like having another opinion without you being present for the meeting. The team will decide on the best course of treatment they recommend for your case. Oesophago-gastric cancer is usually treated with surgery (with either a gastrectomy or oesophagectomy), chemotherapy or radiotherapy or sometimes a combination of all three.

After your initial appointment a letter will be sent to your GP outlining the findings of your appointment. You will be sent a copy of this letter.

Macmillan navigators

As part of the Macmillan Cancer Support and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust partnership, we’ve introduced the Macmillan cancer navigators service.

Macmillan navigators offer a single phone contact for all cancer patients. They can help with booking appointments, accessing local support services and finding answers to any questions. Please call the Macmillan navigators team with any questions you have about your cancer care. Learn more about Macmillan navigators.

Patient information leaflets

• Enhanced Recovery Programme (ERP) for upper GI surgery
• My treatment plan booklet for oesophago gastric service
• Gastroscopy with endoscopic mucosal resection
• Gastroscopy for endoscopic submucosal dissection ESD
• Gastroscopy with radiofrequency ablation RFA for oesophageal dysplasia
• Surgery for cancer of the oesophagus
• Going home after your surgery for cancer of the oesophagus
• Going home after your surgery for cancer of the stomach