To battle cancer, choose oncologist with care

I was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer with mets in my liver four and a half years ago. I was told at the time I had a colon resection by my surgeon that if I attempted to resect the tumors from my liver I would "bleed out." The evaluation was confirmed last year, when the surgeon told me he would not even consider getting his liver operated on to remove the lesions that had been treated with literally three years of chemo.
I decided, as a last resort, after chemo treatments were causing less and less progression of my disease, to get a second opinion at MD Anderson in Houston. The surgeon at MDA was able to do a staged liver resection. At this point I am cancer free.
If you have the means, it is hard to see why it wouldn't pay most cancer patients to get a "second opinion" from a doctor that has no relationship to his or her current medical team.
To the extent that my life has been extended... for what I I hope will be many years, it is because I did NOT follow the advice of my well respected, well educated, less than competent (compared to leading surgeons in this area) cancer specialists.

Doug wrote:

I was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer with mets in my liver four and a half years ago. I was told at the time I had a colon resection by my surgeon that if I attempted to resect the tumors from my liver I would "bleed out." The evaluation was confirmed last year, when the surgeon told me he would not even consider getting his liver operated on to remove the lesions that had been treated with literally three years of chemo.
I decided, as a last resort, after chemo treatments were causing less and less progression of my disease, to get a second opinion at MD Anderson in Houston. The surgeon at MDA was able to do a staged liver resection. At this point I am cancer free.
If you have the means, it is hard to see why it wouldn't pay most cancer patients to get a "second opinion" from a doctor that has no relationship to his or her current medical team.
To the extent that my life has been extended... for what I I hope will be many years, it is because I did NOT follow the advice of my well respected, well educated, less than competent (compared to leading surgeons in this area) cancer specialists.

Doug, was there a reason that you did not choose Fred Hutch for your second opinion? Thanks and best wishes.