St. Luke’s Lecture 1994
08/12/1994 in Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 6, Kildare Street, Dublin 2
Mr. Thomas N Walsh, University Department of Surgery, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin.
Oesophageal Cancer: On the Threshold of Hope
Introduction:
Few cancers are viewed with the same nihilism amongst the medical profession as oesophageal cancer. The common view is that this is a rare but lethal tumour, the surgery for which is often excessive, the quality of life following resection poor and the chance of long term survival remote. It is also held that as the predominant cell type is squamous carcinoma this should respond to radiotherapy, while adenocarcinoma is unresponsive to neoadjuvant therapy. Recent changes in the presentation and management of this tumour challenge all of these assumptions. This paper focuses on some of the most relevant of these changes, particularly those in which the St James’s unit has played a role, and suggest that we can now afford to entertain greater optimism for the future.
Irish J Med Sci, , 164:197
The President of the Academy Professor David Powell presided and the Chairman of St. Luke’s Hospital presented the silver medal and honorarium and congratulated the speaker on an excellent lecture.
This being the nineteenth St. Luke’s Lecture since its beginnings in 1975.