Chemotherapy and Oncologists

If you are going to have drug treatment such as chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or immunotherapy (usually antibody therapy), or you need radiotherapy, you will then be referred to an oncologist. Sometimes a patient may be referred directly to an oncologist, without intervening surgery. If you have a cancer affecting your blood (non-solid tumors, such as leukaemias, lymphomas and myeloma) you will be referred to a haematologist or oncologist specialising in blood cancers.

Oncologists come in two broad varieties. Clinical oncologists, who specialise in using radiation therapy, the technology of which these days is extraordinarily sophisticated, which focuses radiation with extreme accuracy on the tumour with the aim of eliminating, shrinking or controlling it. Clinical oncologists often provide both drug treatment and radiotherapy. The other category consists of Medical oncologists, who specialise in drug treatment such as chemotherapy. ( Some oncologists are associated in the NHS with specialist referral centres that treat rarer tumours.)

Cancer consultants often say that one of the first and most important attributes to bear in mind when choosing a consultant is ‘availability’. (At LOC, we see 90% of our patients within 24 hours of a referral being made to us. In many cases we start the patient’s treatment within 24 hours of the first consultation if no further investigations are required). We know that some patients may wish to have time to come to terms with their diagnosis, or to put off the start of treatment, to deal with important issues in their lives. This may be understandable and is often perfectly reasonable, but in other situations it is not wise.

The choice of oncologist is clearly a very important one and you can receive help in making the choice from your family doctor and primary consultant (that is, the main consultant involved in your diagnosis). More than 30 leading consultant oncologists, both clinical and medical, and 4 consultant haematologists, currently treat patients privately at LOC. All our consultant medical oncologists specialise in particular types of tumour – breast, GI (gastro-intestinal), prostate etc. Some specialise in more than one area, others are more specifically focussed. Click here to find the LOC’s consultants who are specialists in the type of cancer you are enquiring about.