Surgery is the only known treatment for pancreatic cancer that has a definite, positive impact on survival for this disease.
Surgery is only used to remove cancers of the pancreas if all of the known cancer can be removed. The location of the tumor within the pancreas determines the type of surgery. If the cancer has not spread to any distant lymph nodes, blood vessels, or other organs, such as the liver, surgical treatment can be performed to remove the tumor.
Prior to surgery, each patient is evaluated by the medical team so that surgeons can develop an individualized treatment plan.
Surgeons at the Fenix Surgical Gastro Center perform a variety of advanced pancreatic surgical techniques that include:
UPMC’s surgeons are highly experienced in minimally invasive (laparoscopic) pancreatic surgery, and recommend this approach for many patients. The benefits of minimally invasive surgery may include:
- Shorter hospital stays (typically two days shorter than traditional surgery)
- Faster recovery times
- Smaller incisions
- Reduced likelihood of needing a blood transfusion during surgery
- Safety appears to be identical to traditional surgery
Minimally invasive techniques are used on a weekly basis at the UPMC Pancreatic Cancer Center to:
- Remove tumors from the pancreas
- Diagnose and biopsy pancreatic tumors
- Place markers (gold fiducials) for specialized radiation to treat pancreatic cancer
- Bypass the stomach (creating a new route for food to leave the stomach) when large pancreatic tumors are blocking it
- Stage pancreatic cancers using ultrasound
- Drain pancreatic cysts to relieve symptoms
Through significant research efforts, UPMC’s pancreatic surgery team is working to improve and adapt laparoscopic surgery for additional types of pancreatic tumors.
Laparoscopic pancreatic surgery involves removing a pancreatic tumor, and sometimes the spleen, through five or six half-inch-long incisions in the abdomen.
The surgical instruments are introduced into the abdomen through these small incisions along with a video camera (laparoscope) so that the surgical team can see the tissues.