Endoscopy
Endoscopy is a procedure that allows a doctor to view the inside of a patient’s body. Originally, endoscopy was only used in the esophagus, stomach, and colon. Now, our skilled physicians are using endoscopy to diagnose diseases of the ear, nose, throat, heart, urinary tract, joints, and abdomen. With endoscopy now having such broad application in cancer care, Dignity Health – Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center offers clinical endoscopy services as a part of our comprehensive cancer care and personalized approach.
When is endoscopy needed?
As a part of your personalized cancer diagnosis and treatment, your doctor may recommend an endoscopy. Some of the reasons for ordering an endoscopy are to:
- Screen for and prevent cancer
- Diagnose a disease or find out the cause of symptoms
- Give treatments including:
- Surgery through small incisions in the skin, called laparoscopic surgery
- Laser therapy, using a powerful beam of light to destroy cancer cells
- Microwave ablation, using heat to destroy cancerous tissue
- Surgery using an endoscope inserted into the gastrointestinal tract, called endoscopic mucosal resection or endoscopic submucosal dissection
- Photodynamic therapy, destroying the tumor with a laser after injecting it with a light-sensitive substance
We have developed a very strong cancer-fighting endoscopy program in our clinic. We can do both screening and diagnostic colonoscopies here, and we also have a one day, fast-track program at the cancer institute for patients who are healthy and need a screening colonoscopy which is faster than the industry average.
Multidisciplinary Approach to Cancer Care
"I think the thing that really sets us apart is the expertise that we have the expertise, we have the technology, and we have that sort of unquantifiable patient focus that really culminates in a team-based, multi-disciplinary, patient-centered approach.”
Types of endoscopy
Our endoscopy team provides a full complement of clinical endoscopy services in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer at Dignity Health – Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s. The most common types of endoscopy procedures we provide are:
- Colonoscopy
- Colposcopy
- Cystoscopy
- Esophagoscopy
- Gastroscopy
- Laparoscopy
- Laryngoscopy
- Proctoscopy
- Sigmoidoscopy
- Thoracoscopy
