Gastrointestinal cancer

A diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancer is unsettling news for anyone. Be assured that your multidisciplinary care team at UCHealth understands your fears and will develop a customized treatment plan to help you fight it.

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A multidisciplinary team to treat multiple cancer types

At UCHealth cancer facilities, our treatment teams provide advanced care for anyone diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer. We’re recognized as a center for developing and setting new standards in the treatment of gastrointestinal and related cancers.

UCHealth specializes in a wide variety of cancers of the digestive system, including:

Advanced treatment, caring approach

Provider showing man test resultsAt UCHealth, the same caring team of doctors and support professionals from many fields – including our elite, Magnet-designated nursing staff – collaborate to develop the best plan of care for you, and they stay with you from your initial appointment through treatment and aftercare.

You receive doctor-managed care that emphasizes wellness and healing for you as a whole person. Our special GI nurse navigator helps guide you through the entire process. Your core team members may include:

  • Medical oncologists
  • Radiation oncologists
  • Surgical oncologists

Additional UCHealth medical professionals who contribute their expertise to your care may include:

  • Gastroenterologists
  • Liver transplant specialists
  • Pathologists
  • Radiologists
  • Nurse practitioners
  • Oncology social workers
  • Integrative medicine and complementary care therapists
provider explaining a treatment

Clinical trials

Your medical team may also recommend participation in a clinical trial. We conduct hundreds of these trials of new treatments or drugs through our UCHealth/University of Colorado Cancer Center.

Participation in a clinical trial may provide those who qualify with access to drugs and vaccines years before they are widely available.

Learn more

Five-year small intestine cancer survival rates

Chart comparing all stages Small intestine Cancer UCHealth 69.2% survival rate to Colorado state average of 63.6%

Number of Patients Diagnosed – UCHealth 95 – State of Colorado – 445
Number of Patients Surviving – UCHealth 66 – State of Colorado – 283
*n<30, 5 Year Survival – (Date of diagnosis 1/1/2010–12/31/2014)

National Cancer Institute (NCI). Gastric Cancer Treatment (https://www.cancer.gov/types/stomach/patient/stomach-treatment-pdq)

American College of Gastroenterology. Gastrointestinal Cancers (https://gi.org/topics/gastrointestinal-cancers/)

National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI): National Library of Medicine. Global Burden of 5 Major Types Of Gastrointestinal Cancer (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8630546/)

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