“I am incredibly proud of the entire multidisciplinary team of clinicians who are and have been dedicated to providing the safest, highest quality care to our patients for the past two decades,” says John Marks, MD, section chief of colorectal surgery at Main Line Health, and medical director of the Harry Paul Mirabile, Sr., Colorectal Cancer Center at Lankenau Medical Center, part of Main Line Health. “This accreditation program has been developed to raise the standard of care of rectal cancer patients across the United States. At Lankenau Medical Center, we are pioneers in the field of rectal cancer with a focus on both curing the rectal cancer patient while also avoiding a permanent colostomy bag. We are incredibly proud of this recognition, which further demonstrates our commitment to scientific discovery, innovative surgical techniques and superior patient outcomes.”
Dr. Marks has introduced several surgical techniques, including the transanal abdominal transanal radical proctosigmoidectomy (TATA), the transanal total mesorectal excision (taTME), and the transanal endoscopic microsurgery and single incision laparoscopic procedures, to spare colon and sphincter function with little to no scarring. These procedures have resulted in thousands of patients going on to lead normal lives after a diagnosis of colon and rectal cancers. His expertise continues to receive attention from across the nation and the globe, with patients traveling from Mexico, Nepal, Europe and Africa, among other places. Currently, Lankenau Medical Center is the only center in the county utilizing the new single-port robot to treat rectal cancer.
”I want to applaud the efforts of the entire rectal cancer program team on this achievement,” says Phil Robinson, president, Lankenau Medical Center. “This accreditation demonstrates what we have already known here at Main Line Health—that Dr. Marks and his team are doing exceptional work, providing the most advanced care with the best possible outcomes for our patients, and leading in the field of colorectal cancers.”
The NAPRC was developed through a collaboration between the ACS Commission on Cancer (CoC), an ACS quality program, and the Optimizing the Surgical Treatment of Rectal Cancer (OSTRiCh) Consortium, as well as the American College of Radiology (ACR), the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS), and the College of American Pathologists (CAP). It is based on successful international models that emphasize program structure, patient care processes, performance improvement, and performance measures. Its goal is to ensure that rectal cancer patients receive appropriate care using a multidisciplinary approach.
For more information about colorectal cancer services at Main Line Health, visit mainlinehealth.org/colorectal.
