The very nature of cancer dictates that a multidisciplinary approach is the best way to treat it. It spreads through multiple systems of the body, requiring different individuals with diverse knowledge, and the types of treatments we have available are very unique and different, requiring specialists in each area. So it becomes necessary for a guy who is a specialist in head and neck surgery (which an ENT is not by the way) to interface with a guy who does thoracic surgery to deal with the lungs, who interfaces with a radiology oncologist who deals with another treatment modality etc. etc. etc.

In all my postings regarding this approach I always emphasize that I prefer a multidisciplinary cancer care facility. Examples would be Sloan Kettering or MD Anderson. All the various specialists are all located and working together in the same place as a matter of routine. The support staff is accustomed to the logistics of the interfacing and timing of procedures and they streamline people through the different processes. But the most important aspect of being in this kind of facility is going to the tumor board there. At my tumor board on my 7th day of going through tests, I sat in a room with over 25 different specialists who reviewed all my films and tests on this big movie screen, each examined me (I had more fingers than I can count stuck down my throat feeling around) and then for the better part of an hour they discussed, and even argued, their individual perspectives on how I should be treated and in what sequence. What came out of that tumor board was a definitive plan that was immediately put into place and coordinated and scheduled day by day, for the next three months. I knew right there and then when my radiation was going to end, and two months down the road when I was going to have my neck dissection etc