I trained in general surgery at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Following my residency, I completed surgical oncology training at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. After finishing this SSO-accredited fellowship, I joined the staff at Creighton University in the Surgical Oncology Division in 2005. In 2010, I joined the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the Division of Surgical Oncology.

I treat a broad range of malignant diseases including cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, endocrine organs, soft tissue sarcomas, skin tumors, and peritoneal-based malignancies. Although I perform general surgery, I limit my practice to oncologic diseases, except for general surgery conditions that arise in my oncology patients or by special requests for complex general surgery conditions of the GI tract, such as pancreatic pseudocysts, benign biliary strictures, and advanced laparoscopy and endoscopy. I am also actively involved in clinical and basic science research for peritoneal surface malignancies and gastrointestinal cancer.

CLINICAL INTERESTS
Summary of specific areas of interest/expertise include:

Peritoneal: Management of peritoneal surface malignancies (PSMs) that spread in the abdominal cavity. More common PSMs include ovarian, appendix, colorectal, mesothelioma, and pseudomyxoma; but many tumors that spread can potentially be treated. The treatment involves cytoreductive surgery (CRS) -- removal of visible tumor and intra-peritoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy (HIPEC or IPHC) administered at the time of surgery.

GI malignancies: Pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, both primary and metastatic disease. Expertise in open and laparoscopic pancreatic, biliary, hepatic, and splenic surgery. Expertise in intra-operative ultrasound for GI malignancies, and radiofrequency ablation techniques (open & laparoscopic) for liver metastasis, as well as placement of hepatic artery pump for colorectal hepatic metastasis. Diagnostic & therapeutic endoscopy (EGD & colonoscopy).

Skin: Treat all forms of skin tumors, such as melanoma, merkel cell, and squamous cell. Utilize sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy to stage the nodal basins and perform nodal dissections when indicated. Expertise in isolated limb perfusion/infusion (ILP/ILI) to provide limb salvage therapy for advanced melanoma or merkel cell. Manage complex/metastatic tumors of the skin.

Endocrine: Thyroid, parathyroid disease management including neck dissections. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor management both open and minimally invasive resections of tumors.

Sarcomas: Limb preserving procedures for extremity sarcomas (surgery and/or ILP/ILI). Management of retroperitoneal and intra-abdominal sarcomas and gastrointestinal stromal (GIST) tumors.

More from Dr. Jason Foster
Hot Chemotherapy - The Nebraska Medical Center

Dr. Jason Foster is one of a very small number of surgical oncologists in the USA practicing HIPEC, or hot chemotherapy, which is used to treat cancers of the appendix, ovaries, and colon, as well as mesothelioma. Surgeons first remove the visible tumor from inside the abdominal cavity, then fill the cavity with a heated chemotherapy solution. The chemo essentially "washes" out the microscopic cancer cells from the patient's abdomen. It's these tiny cancer cells that often re-implant and cause the cancer to return. Abdominal cancer returns in 65-80% of patients treated with traditional surgery followed by IV chemotherapy.