Multidisciplinary team (MDT) for hepatobiliary cancers

A team of specialists meet to talk about the best treatment for you. They are called a multidisciplinary team (MDT).

If you have a hepatobiliary cancer, you are usually treated by a specialist hepatobiliary cancer MDT. Hepatobiliary cancers include:

• liver cancer
• secondary liver cancer
• bile duct cancer
• gallbladder cancer.

The MDT look at national treatment guidelines or the latest evidence for the type of cancer you have. If you have any treatment preferences, your doctor will tell them about this.

Your MDT may include:

• a hepatologist – a doctor who specialises in liver disease
• a surgeon who specialises in hepatobiliary cancers
• a medical oncologist – a doctor who specialises in giving chemotherapy
• a clinical oncologist – a doctor who specialises in giving radiotherapy and chemotherapy
• an interventional radiologist – a doctor who uses imaging to help them give treatments such as ablation, chemoembolisation (TACE), radioembolisation (SIRT) or bile duct stents
• a nurse specialist
• radiologists – who help to analyse x-rays and scans
• pathologists – who advise on the type and spread of the cancer.

It may also include:

• a palliative care doctor or nurse who specialises in symptom control
• a dietitian
• a physiotherapist
• an occupational therapist (OT)
• a psychologist or a counsellor.