Our Expertise & Technology

	Dr. Kenneth Offit with Research Study Assistant Emily Glogowski

At Memorial Sloan-Kettering, a team of more than 20 specialists work together in a multidisciplinary team to provide the best possible clinical care.

Eradicating Cancer, Preserving Function

We offer the most advanced treatment options not only to eradicate the disease but to preserve patients' ability to function normally. Our surgeons have developed new techniques that preserve bowel, bladder, and sexual function. These treatment advances have reduced the number of patients requiring a permanent colostomy after rectal surgery to only 10 percent.

Minimally Invasive Surgery

Some colorectal tumors can now be removed by minimally invasive methods. Advances in laparoscopic technology and fiber optics allow surgeons to perform complex procedures through small incisions. One such method, transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM), allows surgeons to remove certain tumors from the rectum using smaller incisions than standard open surgery.

Sparing Healthy Tissue

Our doctors are leaders in the development and use of preoperative treatment regimens as part of a concerted, overall programmatic effort towards sphincter preservation rather than the use of permanent colostomies. For selected patients whose rectal cancer has recurred in the pelvis, we also offer intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT), which allows for high doses of radiation therapy to be delivered directly to the tumor during surgery while sparing surrounding healthy tissues.

Reconstruction for Quality of Life

Memorial Sloan-Kettering surgeons pioneered a reconstruction technique that builds a new rectum from a portion of the colon. This and other methods of rectal reconstruction are now combined with techniques to preserve nerves vital to sexual functioning. In men with rectal cancer, our potency preservation rates are very high.