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News/ Breakthroughs

The Columbia University Pancreas Center

John A. Chabot, MD, Director, Pancreas Center

Thirty-five percent of people who develop pancreatic cancer are considered inoperable because the cancer invades blood vessels surrounding the pancreas, such as the portal vein. At many hospitals, patients are turned down for surgery even though their cancer has not spread to other organs. Yet surgeons at the Columbia University Pancreas Center have developed special surgical protocols that enable them to successfully operate on the vessels to completely remove these patients' cancer.

This is just one example of the innovative and compassionate care found at the Pancreas Center, which provides intensive protocols for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pancreatic diseases. These include:

• Prevention through risk stratification and screening: By identifying all evidence known to contribute to a person's risk of developing pancreatic cancer, practitioners can provide guidance and ongoing screening, and help highrisk patients avoid developing the disease. This is one of only a few risk-assessment programs nationwide that provide safe and accurate screening strategies to identify a patient's degree of risk for developing pancreatic cancer.
• Diagnosis: Early detection can profoundly impact an individual's chances of surviving pancreatic cancer. The center has extensive advanced endoscopic and radiological expertise to visualize and biopsy pancreatic tissues. Techniques used at the center include abdominal ultrasound, MRI, CT scan, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), angiograpy, biliary and pancreatic manometry, endosonography-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA), and laparoscopic examination.
• Treatment: Specialists at the Pancreas Center have found ways to customize pancreatic surgery and preserve more healthy tissue, while still safely removing all traces of cancer tissue. Custom resections may combine elements of distal pancreatectomy, total pancreatectomy, and the Whipple procedure, allowing many patients to avoid total removal of the pancreas. The center's surgical mortality rate of less than 1% is significantly lower than the nationwide rate of 4%-15%.

Learn more about the Pancreas Center at www.pancreasmd.org or by calling 201.346.7001.