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SASKATOONEXPRESS - February 8-14, 2016 - Page 1
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Volume 14, Issue 5, Week of February 8, 2016
Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
Carl Schlosser was back at his desk at Prairieland Park not long after live-saving surgery (Photo by Sandy Hutchinson)
The battle of his life
C
Carl Schlosser fought cancer with rarely-used treatment
arl Schlosser’s positive outlook, determination and trust in a miraculous medical moment have paid healthy dividends. On May 14, 2015, Schlosser, the 56-year-old director of events for Saskatoon Prairieland Park, was battling stomach cancer and facing the ominous prospect that he might have to enter palliative care. “Microscopic cells were found in my omentum from a surgery biopsy,” said Schlosser.
NED POWERS People
“In a family conference call, I was told I was in stage 4 and palliative. I told my family I wasn’t going to let this cancer beat me. I was going into the fight of my life.” Dr. Renee Kennedy, a surgeon at St. Paul’s Hospital, said there was the possibility that Schlosser could qualify for combined cancer surgery and chemotherapy at the Calgary Foothills Hospital. If accepted, he would become only the ninth person in the
last eight years to undergo the procedures. Cytoreductive surgery is a process that removes most or all of the visible tumours from inside the abdomen, the lining inside the abdomen and any organs where the cancer might be growing. The omentum is a membrane connecting the stomach to other organs. Heated Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy is a procedure designed to kill any remaining cancer cells after all of the visible cancer is removed. The treatment team infuses a chemotherapy solution of 40 to 42 degrees Celsius directly into the abdomen. The
heated chemotherapy is continuously circulated throughout the abdomen for 60 minutes. The solution is removed and the incision is closed. Dr. Walley Temple and Dr. Lloyd Mack were the surgical oncologists at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. “My heart had to be 100 per cent,” said Schlosser. “I had to regain about 60 pounds of weight I had lost in the previous six months. The cancer had to be contained. Sometimes the cancer moves around in the body. Mine stayed within the stomach.” (Continued on page 4)