Ridley-Tree Cancer Center at Sansum Clinic has announced the community’s first fellowship-trained surgical oncologist, Dr. W. Charles Conway, FACS, to its medical staff.
Dr. Conway has eight years of high-volume complex gastroenterology oncology experience.
“Our cancer center has a long history of recruiting the best and the brightest physicians from across the nation and we are pleased to welcome Dr. Conway,” said Dr. Kurt N. Ransohoff, CEO/chief medical officer of Sansum Clinic.
“Dr. Conway’s expertise in surgical oncology expands the capabilities of the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center to encompass the three primary modalities of cancer treatment — surgical oncology, medical oncology and radiation oncology — ensuring patients can access all the care they need right here in Santa Barbara, close to home, family, friends and work,” Dr. Ransohoff said.
A native of Michigan, Dr. Conway completed medical school and a general surgery residence at Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center. At that time, he finished a year in a translational research laboratory studying colon cancer cellular adhesion.
He then entered the surgical oncology fellowship program at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica.
This fellowship program included broad surgical oncology training as well as focused study in the treatment of gastroesophageal cancers at the University of Southern California, and liver and pancreas cancers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Dr. Conway then accepted a position at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, where he practiced for eight years. At Ochsner, he was a high-volume pancreas surgeon, personally performing more than 250 Whipple procedures.
His practice was also high volume for liver and esophageal cancer operations, and included complex pancreatobiliary resections that involved vascular reconstruction.
Dr. Conway performed the first fully robotic Whipple procedure in Louisiana, and started the state’s only total pancreatectomy with autoislet transplantation program for chronic pancreatitis.
Dr. Conway will continue to focus on the multidisciplinary care of patients with gastroesophageal, hepatic and pancreatic tumors in his current practice at Ridley-Tree Cancer Center. He will do his in-patient surgeries at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.
— Jill R. Fonte for Ridley-Tree Cancer Center.