Eric Vallieres, M.D., FRCSC

Eric Vallieres, M.D., FRCSC

Eric Vallieres, M.D., FRCSC
Specialty

Robotic Surgery, Thoracic Surgery

Clinical Interests / Special Procedures Performed

Bronchoscopy, Chest Wall Resections, Chest Wall Tumors, da Vinci (Robot-Assisted Surgery), Esophageal Achalasia, Hyperhidrosis, Lung Cancer, Lungs & Esophagus, Mediastinal Masses, Mediastinal Pathology, Mesothelioma, Myasthenia Gravis, Pleural Diseases, Sympathectomy, Thoracic Oncology, Thoracic Surgery, Thoracic Surgery (robotic), Thoracoscopic Lobectomies, Thorascopic Surgery, Thymoma

  • Accepting Children: No
  • Accepting New Patients: Yes
  • Accepting Medicare: Yes
  • Accepting Medicaid/DSHS: Yes
Payment Methods Accepted:

Medicare, Medicaid/DSHS, Bill Insurance, VISA, Master Card, Cash, Check, American Express, Discover Card, Money Order

Insurance Accepted:

Contact this office for accepted insurance plans.

Additional Information:

Appointments

Surgical Director, Lung Cancer Program - Swedish Medical Center

Professional Highlights

KING TV Airs Story on Surgical Procedure Swedish Offers to Stop Excessive Sweating

Oct. 10, 2009, KING Television (Channel 5; NBC)

Essential hyperhidrosis is a condition marked by abnormal, uncontrollable and excessive sweating that occurs in
different parts of the body for no apparent reason. Now doctors make two small incisions under the arm pit and cut the nerve that supplies the sweat glands. Patients are expected to return home the same day.

News Release

Dr. Vallières was voted "Top Doctors" in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine (2009, 2010)

Nearly 1,200 physicians, nurses and physician assistants in King, Kitsap and Snohomish counties nominated colleagues they would choose to treat themselves and their loved ones. 

News Release


Dr. Vallières was voted "Top Doctors" in Seattle Magazine (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). 

A survey was mailed to more than 18,000 physicians in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties. The survey asked physicians to name the provider they would seek out or recommend to loved ones.

News Release

Faculty, “Practical Implications of the New Staging System” and “Surgical Staging of NSCLC”

UICC 7th edition

  • Designed to be a better prognostic tool
  • New allocations correlate better to accepted treatment recommendations

7th Annual Winter Lung Cancer Conference. Key Biscayne, FLA.
March 12, 2010

Videos

Introduction to Lung Cancer Surgery – Treatment

Swedish 100 – Rob Frerichs, Lung Cancer Survivor

Swedish 100 - Swedish 100 - Jan Seaman, Lung Cancer Survivor

Philosophy of Care

Emp[owering my patients with information so that they can make the best decision regarding the treatment of their cancer or disease

Personal Interests

Skiing, bicycling, travels

Medical School

Universite Laval, Quebec

Residency

University of Toronto, Ontario

Fellowship(s)

Prof. Louis Couraud, Bordeaux, France

Board Certifications

FRCSC General Surgery 1988, FRCSC Thoracic Surgery 1990

Languages:

English and French

Professional Associations:

Royal College Phys. Surgeons Canada, Society Thoracic Surgery, Western Thoracic Surgical Assoc., ACOSOG, ASCO, IASLC, General Thoracic Surgical Club, SWOG, Canadian Assoc. Thoracic Surgeons

Awards:

1987-1988 Award for Teaching Excellence, Department of Surgery

Additional Information:

Appointments

Surgical Director, Lung Cancer Program - Swedish Medical Center

Professional Highlights

KING TV Airs Story on Surgical Procedure Swedish Offers to Stop Excessive Sweating

Oct. 10, 2009, KING Television (Channel 5; NBC)

Essential hyperhidrosis is a condition marked by abnormal, uncontrollable and excessive sweating that occurs in
different parts of the body for no apparent reason. Now doctors make two small incisions under the arm pit and cut the nerve that supplies the sweat glands. Patients are expected to return home the same day.

News Release

Dr. Vallières was voted "Top Doctors" in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine (2009, 2010)

Nearly 1,200 physicians, nurses and physician assistants in King, Kitsap and Snohomish counties nominated colleagues they would choose to treat themselves and their loved ones. 

News Release


Dr. Vallières was voted "Top Doctors" in Seattle Magazine (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). 

A survey was mailed to more than 18,000 physicians in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties. The survey asked physicians to name the provider they would seek out or recommend to loved ones.

News Release

Faculty, “Practical Implications of the New Staging System” and “Surgical Staging of NSCLC”

UICC 7th edition

  • Designed to be a better prognostic tool
  • New allocations correlate better to accepted treatment recommendations

7th Annual Winter Lung Cancer Conference. Key Biscayne, FLA.
March 12, 2010

Videos

Introduction to Lung Cancer Surgery – Treatment

Swedish 100 – Rob Frerichs, Lung Cancer Survivor

Swedish 100 - Swedish 100 - Jan Seaman, Lung Cancer Survivor

Induction chemotherapy in the treatment of surgical lung cancer.

The use of air-leak sealants in lung surgery.

The use of adjuvant antigen specific vaccine therapy in resected lung cancers.

Breath-test evaluation in screening for lung cancer.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Trimodality Therapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

G. Buduhan, S. Menon, R. Aye, B. Louie, V. Mehta, E. Vallières

View selected presentation slides

Society of Thoracic Surgeons, 45th Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA.

Jan. 27, 2009

Preliminary experience with minimally invasive thymectomy

Youssef S, Blitz M, Vallières E, Aye RW, Louie BE

"Minimally Invasive Thymectomy has been successfully adopted at Swedish Medical Center"

View selected presentatino slides

Washington Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. Lake Chelan, WA. June 14, 2009

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

Book Chapters:
Schild SE, Ramalingam SS, Vallières E. Management of Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer In: UpToDate, Basow, D (Ed), UpToDate, Waltham, MA, 2011.

Park DR, Vallières E. Pneumomediastinum and Mediastinitis, Chapter 76: in Textbook of Respiratory Medicine 5th edition by Mason RJ, Broaddus VC, Martin TR, King TE, Schraufnagel DE, Murray JF and Nadel JA (editors), Elsevier Saunders (USA), : 1836-1858, 2010

Park DR, Vallières E. Tumors and Cysts of the Mediastinum, Chapter 76: in Textbook of Respiratory Medicine 5th edition by Mason RJ, Broaddus VC, Martin TR, King TE, Schraufnagel DE, Murray JF and Nadel JA (editors). Elsevier Saunders (USA), : 1814-1835, 2010

Vallières E. Role of surgery in multimodality therapy for small cell lung cancer. In: UpToDate, Basow, D (Editor), UpToDate, Waltham, MA, 2009.

Schild, S, West, H, Vallières E. Management of stage I and stage II non-small cell lung cancer. In: UpToDate, Basow, D (Editor), UpToDate, Waltham, MA, 2009.

Publications:
Youssef SJ, Louie BE, Farivar AS, Blitz M, Aye RW, Vallières E. Comparison of Open and Minimally Invasive Thymectomies at a Single Institution, American Journal of Surgery. 199 (5): 589-93, 2010

Pisters KMW, Vallières E, Bunn P, Crowley JC, Chansky K, Ginsberg RJ, Gandara D. "Surgery With or Without Preoperative Paclitaxel and Carboplatin in Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Southwest Oncology Group Trial S9900, an Intergroup, Randomized, Phase III Trial", Journal of Clinical Oncology 28: 1843-49, April 10 2010.

Page B, Blitz M, Louie B, Aye R and Vallières E. "Pulmonary Resection of NSCLC can be performed safely following definitive chemoradiotherapy". (Abstract) Oral presentation 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer, San Francisco, CA August 1st 2009, Journal of Thoracic Oncology. 4(9) Supplement 1:S301. September 2009.

Vallières E: “More Questions about Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Lung Cancer”, an invited commentary, Oncology 23(10): 892, 896, September 2009.

Vallières E, Shepherd FA, Crowley JJ, Van Houtte P, Postmus PE, Carney D, Chansky K, Shaikh Z, Goldstraw P,on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer International Staging Committee*, and Participating Institutions. The IASLC Lung Cancer Staging Project: Proposals regarding the relevance of TNM in the Pathological Staging of Small Cell Lung Cancer in the Forthcoming (Seventh) Edition of theTNM Classification for Lung Cancer. Journal of Thoracic Oncology 4(9): 1049-59, September 2009.

Buduhan G, Menon S, Aye R, Louie B, Mehta V, Vallières E. "Induction Chemotherapy, Extrapleural Pneumonectomy and Hemithoracic Radiation Therapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma". Annals of Thoracic Surgery 88(3) :870-6, September 2009.

Hunt BM, Vallières E, Buduhan G, Aye R, Louie B: "Sarcoidosis as a benign cause of lymphadenopathy in cancer patients". American Journal of Surgery, 197: 629-32, May 2009.

Travis WD, Brambilla E, Rami-Porta R, Vallières E, Tsuboi M, Rusch V, Goldstraw P, on behalf of the International Staging Committee§ and Participating Institutions. "Visceral Pleural Invasion: Pathologic Criteria and Use of Elastic Stains: Proposal for the 7th Edition of the TNM Classification for Lung Cancer". Journal of Thoracic Oncology 3(12):1384-90, December 2008.

Rami-Porta R, Ball D, Crowley JJ, Giroux D, Jett J, Travis WD, Tsuboi M, Vallières E, Goldstraw P, on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. International Staging CommitteeIASLC Staging Project: T-descriptors: E05-02. Journal of Thoracic Oncology. 2(8) Suppl. 4:S227-S228, August 2007.

Presentations & Education:
Vallières E. Faculty, 7th Annual Winter Lung Cancer Conference: “Practical Implications of the New Staging System” and “Surgical Staging of NSCLC”, Key Biscayne, FLA. March, 2010

Vallières E. Faculty, “Optimizing patient outcome: the multidisciplinary approach. The Surgeon’s Perspective”, ECCO 15th/ESMO 34th Joint Multidisciplinary Congress, Satellite Sponsored Symposium, Berlin, Germany. September, 2009

Vallières E. Co-Chair, Fifth Annual Multidisciplinary Interactive Thoracic Oncology Conference, Seattle, WA. September, 2009

Vallières E. Co-chair and discussant, “Proffered Papers: Therapeutic Strategies in Malignant Mesothelioma”, 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer, San Francisco, CA. August, 2009

Vallières E. Faculty, AATS/STS General Thoracic Surgery Symposium, “Current Early Stage Lung Cancer Trials”, Boston, MA. May, 2009

Marijuana smoking and the risk of lung cancer: time for pause

While smoking marijuana may have recently been legalized, one shouldn’t conclude that it is necessarily healthy.

For individuals who treat lung cancer patients in the states of Washington and Colorado, the recently passed legislations raise serious concerns. Ironically, this happened on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the first US Surgeon General Report by Dr. Luther Terry in January 1964, which concluded that lung cancer is causally related to cigarette smoking. This report had followed decades of warnings by so-called common sense alarmists who had identified this as a major public health issue but who lacked the data to fully support their claims.

It is estimated that, in the US, we saw just over 225,000 new cases of lung cancer in 2012, 80 to 90% of these occurring in active or former cigarette smokers. That year, close to 160,000 American men and women died of their lung cancer. In the state of Washington alone, about 4,200 new cases were diagnosed. These numbers are quite disheartening considering the links that were clearly established and disseminated in the 1964 report and subsequently validated by a multitude of others since. This clearly shows that legal does not guarantee healthy.

Additionally, there is a 20-year lag in between the time when a population starts smoking and the time when the incidence of lung cancer begins to increase. In reverse, it takes 20 years before a decrease in consumption of cigarettes leads to a drop in the incidence of lung cancer.

Having recognized that clear link between tobacco and lung cancer, we are often asked if such a relationship exists with marijuana use as well...

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Posted on 2/11/2013 in cancer, lung cancer, Cancer Institute, Cancer Prevention & Screening, Lung Cancer Program, Lung Cancer Screening | Comments (1)

Palmar hyperhidrosis

Everyone sweats – but what if you had a condition that caused uncontrollable sweating in your hands?

Palmar hyperhidrosis is a benign condition where individuals experience uncontrollable sweating of their hands, way beyond their physiological needs. Hand sweating in such a scenario is often described as being present 24/7, may be worsened in situations of stress but also occurs out of nowhere in times of total rest and serenity. From the constant dampness the hands are exposed to, ulcerations and other skin related changes may develop. Many patients with this condition adopt a line of work and a life style that minimizes public encounters and avoid hand contact such as having to shake hands.

It has been known since the 1920s that by dividing the sympathetic chain (nerve) high up inside the chest, a procedure called thoracic sympathectomy, we can make the hands stop sweating. To achieve this surgically was quite an undertaking back then. The surgical trauma was such that historically very few individuals with hyperhidrosis opted to have corrective surgery. With the development of videoscopic surgery, however, it has become possible to perform the sympathectomy with minimal trauma to the patients. In addition, the magnification provided by the optics of videoscopic surgery has made the surgery safer.

What is involved in an ETS (Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy)?

Nowadays, we offer surgery under general anesthesia as a day surgical procedure (meaning most patients are expected to go home the day of surgery). Two small incisions are needed, and we preferentially place those on your sides. At Swedish, our preferred approach is to clamp the nerve by placing titanium clips on the nerve at appropriate levels. The advantage of clipping the nerve instead of removing a segment of the nerve (as we did prior to 2005) is for possible reversal of the sympathectomy in the rare instance where a patient may be unhappy with the side effects of the surgery (see below).

What results should I expect?

In our hands, ETS will render the hands dry in 99 to100% of cases ...

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Posted on 1/30/2012 in surgery, thoracic | Comments (10)

Lung Cancer staging

What stage is my cancer, doc?

This is often the first question we get asked when meeting with a patient newly diagnosed with lung cancer. In this blog, I would like to briefly review the notion of lung cancer staging and its implications.

Staging allows us to define the extent of a cancer and determine its best available treatment. It also allows us to statistically estimate the prognosis of the cancer. Finally, adequate staging allows us to group patients with cancers of similar extent across different institutions or even countries and evaluate the efficacy of the treatment strategies and compare with new ones.

Staging can be clinical or pathological. Clinical staging is based on the information we obtain from X-rays and scans as well as from procedures where samples (biopsies) of different tissues are obtained in an effort determine what structures may be involved with the cancer. Pathological staging is only available when the cancer has been removed by surgery: i.e. when the pathologist has measured the size of the tumor, its extent and whether or not any lymph nodes were involved with cancer. One should be aware that pathological and clinical stagings don’t always concord 100%. Sometimes clinical staging under-evaluates how extensive the cancer may be, and at times it over-evaluates it, particularly when clinical staging is based only on X-ray information. This is particularly true with the evaluation of lymph nodes that drain the area where the cancer has come from. The role of your lung cancer surgeon in adequately gathering that information to develop the best treatment plan cannot be emphasized enough.

The system we use to define a stage is called the TNM system.

Read more...

Posted on 10/17/2011 in surgery, cancer, lung cancer, thoracic | Comments (0)

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Swedish Thoracic Surgery / First Hill
1101 Madison Street
Suite 850
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: 206-215-6800
Fax: 206-215-6801

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