University Hospitals Surgical Oncologist Shows Patience and Compassion, Leads Growing Program
February 18, 2025
UH Clinical Update | February 2025
A patient receiving a devastating cancer diagnosis requires all the skills and compassion a care team can provide. Everything about their life is turned upside down. For UH Seidman Cancer Center surgical oncologist Luke Rothermel, MD, MPH, being able to meet this need is part of what attracted him to the field.
Luke Rothermel, MD“Cancer diagnoses are kind of like getting hit by a train. You don't always show it physically, but it is a significant emotional trauma,” he says. “It is an intensely terrifying experience for most people. I wanted my practice to be something that could impact this.”
Like many surgeons, Dr. Rothermel says he also relishes the chance to create immediate impact for patients.
“You get into surgery because you have a personality that wants to fix things,” he says. “You take a problem, you fix it, and there's something very satisfying about that.”
Going the Distance
That said, of course, some problems take longer to fix than others. Dr. Rothermel recently spent almost two years directing care for a patient who had a recurring benign tumor in the retroperitoneum, near the back, but who was also a kidney transplant recipient.
“The tumor started to grow so much that it was causing some obstructive symptoms and bowel issues,” Dr. Rothermel says. “This was not a tumor that was going to metastasize, but it was a tumor that unfortunately was going to be a real challenge in a re-operative field and in a patient who is going to stay on immunosuppression, potentially complicating his healing.”
After extensive appointments and consultation, Dr. Rothermel and the patient reached a shared decision to go forward with surgery. However, the patient developed infections and other medical complications pre-surgery, putting the plan on hold. In the end, however, the plan went forward – and with a great result.
“We were able to very carefully remove the mass in its entirety, and do it with no complications, so we’re very grateful for that,” Dr. Rothermel says. “He had a great recovery.”
The patient’s family, in fact, wrote to UH CEO Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS, Jane and Henry Meyer Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair, to express their appreciation for Dr. Rothermel’s skill and compassion. “He went way above and beyond, proving how much he was concerned for his patient’s health and well-being,” they wrote. Based in part on this endorsement, Dr. Megerian recently named Dr. Rothermel a “Dinner with the Doc” honoree.
Focus of Care
Although this was an unusual case, Dr. Rothermel says the bulk of his work at UH Seidman is with skin and soft tissue cancers, with additional work in rare GI cancers. He performs surgery and sees patients at both UH Cleveland Medical Center and UH Geauga.
“I do a lot of multidisciplinary work in the cutaneous oncology and sarcoma disease teams, as well as caring for patients with peritoneal surface diseases and offering cytoreduction and HIPEC,” he says. “The practice has grown tremendously. We have remarkable multidisciplinary teams in those disciplines. And I've helped to build that. We’ve added partners to our team, both in medical oncology, surgical oncology, pathology, and we've built these teams in a way that has increased the volume of these cancers being treated at UH, and we've also increased the clinical trial offerings as a result. It has been very satisfying to participate in clinical trials that are meaningful to patient outcomes, and that will inform what we do in the near future.”
Dr. Rothermel is also active in investigator-initiated research, exploring both FDA-approved and novel mitochondrial regulators as a potential way to overcome resistance to therapy in melanoma.
Putting Patients First
For Dr. Rothermel, a big part of his job is helping patients through what can be a long and tortuous cancer journey. The key to doing this successfully, he says – where patients feel compassion and trust – is frequent and seamless communication.
“We make it really clear to patients that we are going to be available for easy access,” he says.
Plus, a great patient experience, he says, only can come from a great team – which UH Seidman has in abundance.
“I can say with full confidence that the biggest blessing to practicing in cancer here is that I know that I've got a team that is going to care for my people,” he says.
Congratulations to Dr. Rothermel on his “Dinner with the Doc” honor.