Esophageal Cancer Survivor Bill Corbett finds hope at Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute

After top doctors in New Jersey and New York told Bill Corbett, 65, diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer, “Your tumor is inoperable,” he tried to process how quickly his life had changed.

“I went from doing my thing, putting in long hours in my carpentry/handyman business, even going to the gym three to four days a week, to realizing that I may have six months to live,” he says. Then surgeon Jeffrey Brodsky, MD, with LVPG Surgical Oncology and Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute told him something different: “I don’t buy it. Let’s operate.”

Brodsky specializes in complex surgeries of the gastrointestinal tract and associated organs. He believed a successful surgery was possible even though cancer had spread to the adrenal gland on Corbett’s left kidney. In Corbett’s favor, disease was primarily confined to two areas, and he was otherwise healthy.

Miraculous meeting

For Corbett, finding Brodsky was “the first miracle.” Corbett’s son, Adam, is a veterinarian, who met Brodsky’s daughter, an intern, while working at the Philadelphia SPCA. Their chance connection led to Brodsky and Adam reviewing his father’s scans to get Brodsky’s initial opinion. Corbett then traveled from his home in Woodland Park, N.J., to meet Brodsky for a formal second opinion. He was strengthened by his future surgeon’s confidence.

“Dr. Brodsky told me it would be a difficult operation, but he would get the cancer out,” Corbett says. “That’s all I needed to hear. I wanted to fight.”

Up next: second miracle

In January 2017, Brodsky completed “the second miracle”: a complex five-hour procedure at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest. It involved removing the tumor at the base of the esophagus, portions of the esophagus and stomach, left adrenal gland and potentially affected lymph nodes, then rebuilding the connection between the stomach and esophagus.

A message of hope

The nine days Corbett spent in the hospital were difficult, as were the weeks following surgery. By March, he went back to work, taking it one day at a time. In September, he celebrated his recovery by taking his family on a “bucket list” cruise to Alaska. 

“Today, my quality of life is phenomenal,” he says. “I’m so grateful to Dr. Brodsky and everyone at Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute. My story shows that even when some doctors give up on you, you shouldn’t give up on yourself...there’s always hope.”