Memorial Sloan Kettering surgeon Vinod Balachandran

Vinod P. Balachandran, MD

Surgeon

Titles

Assistant Attending Surgeon

Clinical Expertise

Pancreatic Cancer; Benign, Premalignant, and Malignant Diseases of the Pancreas, Bile Duct, Gallbladder, and Liver

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New Patient Appointments

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Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., (Eastern time)
Accepted Insurance Providers

Dr. Balachandran accepts the following list of insurance providers. Select your insurance provider to see more details.

Aetna

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO, EPO PPO, POS, Transplant

Aetna Medicare Advantage (City of NY retirees only, starting 9/1/23)

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO

Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO, PPO

Blue Cross Blue Shield New York

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, POS, EPO, HMO

Blue Cross Blue Shield states outside of NY/NJ

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO, EPO PPO, POS

Blue Cross Health Plus

Payor Type: Medicaid/Managed Medicaid
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO

Carrum Health

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): Supplemental

Cigna

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, POS, HMO

Connecticare

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): POS, EPO, HMO

Emblem

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, POS, EPO, HMO

Emblem Essential

Payor Type: Medicaid/Managed Medicaid
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO

Emblem Medicare Advantage

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, HMO

Empire Blue Cross Medicare Advantage

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, HMO, DSN

Empire Essential

Payor Type: Medicaid/Managed Medicaid
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO

Empire Plan / NYSHIP (Blue Cross/UnitedHealthcare split plan)

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO

Fidelis

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO, EPO

Fidelis Managed Medicaid & HARP

Payor Type: Medicaid/Managed Medicaid
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO

Fidelis Medicare Advantage

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO

First Health

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO

Healthfirst

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): EPO, HMO, PPO, POS

Healthfirst Managed Medicaid

Payor Type: Medicaid/Managed Medicaid
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO

Healthfirst Medicare Advantage

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO, PPO

Healthsmart

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO EPO

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey (HMO)

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey (PPO)

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey Omnia Tier I (EPO)

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): EPO

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey Omnia Tier II (EPO)

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): EPO

Horizon Medicare Advantage

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, HMO

Husky CT Medicaid

Payor Type: Medicaid/Managed Medicaid
In Network Coverage Type(s): State Government

Magnacare

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, POS, EPO

Straight NJ Medicaid

Payor Type: Medicaid/Managed Medicaid
In Network Coverage Type(s): State Government

Straight NY Medicaid

Payor Type: Medicaid/Managed Medicaid
In Network Coverage Type(s): State Government

Medicare Part A&B (traditional Medicare)

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): Federal Government

Multiplan/Beech Street/PHCS

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): Supplemental

MVP

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO/OAP

Non-Participating Plans with Out of Network Benefits

Payor Type: Other
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, POS, EPO, HMO

NYC Medicare Advantage Plus for City Employees

Payor Type: Medicare/Medicare Advantage
In Network Coverage Type(s): TBD

Oscar

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): HMO/EPO

Oxford

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, EPO

World Trade Center Health Program (WTC)

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): State Government

Qualcare

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, POS, HMO

Tricare

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, HMO

UMR

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, POS

United Healthcare

Payor Type: Commercial
In Network Coverage Type(s): PPO, POS, HMO

Contact and Location

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Find a Convenient Location

Memorial Sloan Kettering has locations throughout New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, and Westchester. These locations offer many services, including screening, chemotherapy, and medical testing.

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About Me

Education

MD, SUNY at Stony Brook

Residencies

General Surgery - New York-Presbyterian Hospital

Fellowships

Complex Surgical Oncology - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Board Certifications

Surgery

I am a surgical oncologist who specializes in treating people with both benign and cancerous diseases of the pancreas, bile duct, gallbladder, and liver.

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Our team philosophy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is that every patient is unique in all aspect. Each person has individual needs, from the time of diagnosis, through treatment, and during recovery. This is particularly important when treating cancers of the pancreas, bile duct, gallbladder, and liver. These cancers are among the most complex to treat. They require an experienced surgical team. My partners at MSK and I have extensive experience treating these tumors and have pioneered many of the surgical techniques to safely remove them. We perform close to 1,000 operations a year. We have also developed laparoscopic and robotic surgical approaches and use these techniques whenever possible. They allow people to recover faster after surgery. Individualized treatment can often have many parts, such as chemotherapy and other treatments in addition to surgery. The international leaders on our team have expertise in medical oncology, gastroenterology, radiology, pathology, and nursing. We work to ensure the best possible treatment for every person we care for and meet as a team to discuss all details of patient care. Our primary goal is to provide people with exceptional care in the most careful, efficient, and speedy way possible.

In addition to performing surgeries and caring for patients, I do laboratory research to identify new ways to use the immune system to fight pancreatic cancer. I am also a member of the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at MSK. T cells are highly specialized cells in the immune system that are designed to protect the human body from infections and cancer. In the past decade, we have discovered that T cells can recognize and kill cancers. With this understanding, we have been able to develop treatments called immunotherapies to supercharge T cells and overcome cancer’s defenses.

Immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer have been limited because we didn’t know what draws T cells into these tumors. My laboratory tackled this question with a deep examination of extremely rare long-term survivors of pancreatic cancer. This group survived six years on average. Most other people with the disease do not survive that long. Our investigations have found that tumors of long-term survivors have 12 times more activated T cells. The exceptional survival of these people is linked to the T cells recognizing a certain mutation in cancer proteins called neoantigens. These proteins make cancer resemble an infection. Strikingly, T cells recognizing these neoantigens can be found in the blood of long-term survivors up to 12 years after the tumors were surgically removed. This finding suggests that neoantigens are very effective in generating long-lasting “immune memory” against tumors, and they could serve as effective cancer vaccines. We are now developing clinical trials of personalized cancer vaccines in combination with other immunotherapies to treat pancreatic and other cancers.

I am a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Paul Calabresi Career Development Award, the Society for Surgical Oncology Harvey Barker Travelling Fellow Award, the American Association for Cancer Research Career Development Award, and the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award. I am the principal investigator of several research initiatives, including a Cancer Moonshot Award from the National Cancer Institute and a Convergence Award from Stand Up To Cancer.

Colleagues

Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering work as teams, with specialists from all different areas. This allows us to consider all your needs together, and to give you the best possible care.

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Clinical Trials

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Find a Clinical Trial for You

Memorial Sloan Kettering's doctors and scientists are constantly developing new treatments for cancer. MSK is typically running hundreds of clinical trials at a given time.

You may be able to participate in a clinical trial even if you are new to MSK. Search our online directory to find trial information and see more about who can participate.

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Research and Publications

View Dr. Balachandran's Lab

Publications on PubMed

Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Balachandran’s journal articles. Pubmed is an online index of research papers and other articles from the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

See all on PubMed

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Vinod P. Balachandran discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Genentech
    Provision of Services

If you’re a patient at MSK and would like more information about your doctor’s external relationships, please talk with your doctor.

The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.


This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2021 through disclosure submission in spring 2022). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].


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