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Memorial Sloan-Kettering has a long-standing commitment to improving the detection and treatment of pancreatic cancers. More than 300 new patients with cancer of the pancreas come each year to Memorial Sloan-Kettering, which has one of the largest referral programs for this disease in the nation.

We are one of the few National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers with a specific program in treating upper gastrointestinal cancers, and our investigators have made many of the major advances in the treatment of these diseases.

The Team Approach to Care

At Memorial Sloan-Kettering, doctors take a multidisciplinary team approach that draws on the expertise of more than 20 surgeons, gastrointestinal oncologists, radiation oncologists, gastroenterologists, radiologists, and pathologists, and to determine the most appropriate treatment for each patient. We are a leading member of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) and a participant in most of the national clinical trials to improve the detection, treatment, and prevention of pancreatic cancers.

Team members provide state-of-the-art diagnosis and treatment to patients with pancreatic cancers, even as they add continually to a database that has been tracking pancreatic cancer patients for two decades. One important advantage of this database is the knowledge gained to help each patient avoid unnecessary surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, and help predict outcome.

The Leading Edge of Surgical Technique

Our doctors' expertise and extensive experience in pancreatic cancer surgery has resulted in an extremely low mortality rate compared to that of most hospitals [Ann Surg Oncol 9:847,2002]. We may also treat the surgical patient with radiation therapy and chemotherapy, either to control the initial tumor or to prevent recurrence. An active program in minimally invasive surgery is available for evaluation and treatment of many gastrointestinal cancers and precancerous conditions.

Our Publications
Our Publications
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Advanced Imaging Technologies

When a patient with pancreatic cancer comes to Memorial Sloan-Kettering, the extent of disease is carefully determined through advanced computed tomographic (CT) scanning and laparoscopy, a minimally invasive procedure. This careful evaluation allows for precise determination of the extent of the disease, facilitating appropriate, individualized therapy and avoiding unnecessarily extensive surgery. Patients are then treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or immunotherapy, alone or in combination.

Planning surgical treatment or selecting other therapies for pancreatic tumors depends on high-quality diagnostic imaging of the tumors. Memorial Sloan-Kettering has a team of radiologists who specialize in pancreatic cancer. Diagnosing pancreatic cancer can be difficult since this part of the body is complex and includes several organs and major blood vessels. Computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, and nuclear medicine scans are the main noninvasive methods. Diagnostic imaging techniques have become more sophisticated, capable of revealing more details such as the exact size, density, and nature of a newly diagnosed tumor and response to treatment. In some cases, diagnosis is performed invasively, by removing a small amount of tissue for a biopsy, or by inspecting parts of the interior of the abdomen using a scope.

New Approaches to Therapy

Memorial Sloan-Kettering has several new programs, including the use of radiation therapy with or without chemotherapeutic agents such as gemcitabine, a potent radiation therapy sensitizer, to treat pancreatic cancer that cannot be removed surgically in order to improve the patient's quality of life and relieve pain.

Innovative research efforts are currently under way involving improvements in surgical techniques, advances in radiation therapy and combinations of radiation therapy with drug therapy, and the use of novel chemotherapeutic agents. Newer treatment options, available in clinical trials, include biologic therapy for advanced and recurrent disease.

Clinical researchers in the Gastrointestinal Oncology Service are evaluating pancreatic cancer vaccines as a way to prevent recurrence of the disease. One approach focuses on the common mutations of the K-ras protein that occur in 85 percent of pancreatic cancers. Treatments and combinations of treatments are being investigated for patients whose cancer has spread locally and to distant sites of the body, including chemotherapeutic drugs (e.g, gemcitabine, irinotecan, paclitaxel, flavopiridol, and exatecan), and combinations of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Find a Clinical Trial
Find a Clinical Trial
Find out about new research studies for pancreatic cancer

Familial Pancreatic Cancer Registry

In order to help define environmental and inherited risk factors that lead to the development of pancreatic cancer, investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering have developed a registry that is focused both on patients with pancreatic cancer and on people with a strong family history of this disease. For more information about this registry, please visit our clinical trial database.

Laparoscopic Surgical Technique for Pain Relief in Patients with Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer

The majority of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer are not candidates for surgical removal of the tumor, which in most cases has spread beyond the pancreas. Since pain is a frequent symptom for these patients, techniques to reduce pain have been investigated and have been shown to improve a patient's quality of life. In recent studies, a surgical technique known as neurolytic celiac plexus block (NCPB) has been shown to improve patients' pain level, mood, and life expectancy. Traditionally the neurolytic celiac plexus block procedure has been performed under x-ray guidance, in what is known as a percutaneous approach. Memorial Sloan-Kettering physicians have recently shown that by performing this procedure laparoscopically -- using a specially designed instrument called a laparoscope that can be conducted through small incisions in the abdomen -- a patient's pain can be reduced without incurring substantial side effects. Read more about this palliative procedure.


Last Updated: Dec. 19, 2003
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