Private Oncology Referral

My uncle has recently been diagnosed as suffering from pancreatic cancer which has advanced to the liver and lymph glands. I understand that chemotherapy is the only option, and that it will be administered as a palliative remedy, rather than an attempted cure.

We are presently waiting on an appointment at XX in Manchester. We would like to explore the possibilty of a private referral to an Oncologist in the UK, mainly to discuss the chemotherapy options (if there are any).

Can anybody recommend an expert in this field?

Alternatively, if anybody can give us advice from their own experience of the options available to us, we would be very grateful for your input.

Thanks.

Hi Paul

I'm certainly no expert (see my own post above) but I'm told that the important thing is to make sure that your uncle is being treated at a specialist pancreatic centre. We're very lucky that our local NHS hospital is such a centre. Our nurse-liaison told us that most of the oncologists do private work too and that the treatment wouldn't be any different if we had a private referral - just the asthetics would be better. That may (or may not) be the same in your uncle's case, but it's worth asking.

As for Chemo, we're about to start that route too, also as a pallative remedy. My understanding from my husband's NHS consultant is that there are a limited number of options and he was happy to discuss those and advise on the benefits and disadvantages of each. You could also ask the consultant you see about clinical trials: although there were none suitable for my husband, that might be different in your uncle's case.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck!

Nicki