Memorial Sloan Kettering surgeon Vinod Balachandran

Vinod P. Balachandran, MD

Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgeon

My Role at MSK

Areas of Expertise

My Specialties

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

Request an Appointment

Our Care Advisors can answer many of your questions. They will connect you with the best healthcare provider for your needs.
English
Share

About Me

What I Do at MSK
  • Associate Attending Surgeon
Get To Know Me

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

Read more

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.

My Role at MSK

A hepatopancreatobiliary (heh-PA-toh-PAN-kree-A-to-BIH-lee-AYR-ee) surgeon is a doctor with special training in surgery on the liver, pancreas, gallbladder, and bile ducts. They are also called an HPB surgeon.

Areas of Expertise

My Specialties

  • Pancreatic Cancer
  • Benign, Premalignant, and Malignant Diseases of the Pancreas, Bile Duct, Gallbladder, and Liver
Education & Honors

Education

  • MD, SUNY at Stony Brook

Residencies

  • General Surgery - New York-Presbyterian Hospital

Awards and Honors

  • 2023 FNIH Trailblazer Prize for Clinician-Scientists

Fellowships

  • Complex Surgical Oncology - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Board Certifications

  • Surgery

Insurance Information

Understanding your insurance options is an important part of managing your cancer care. We have relationships with many common healthcare providers and plans.

Aetna

In Network Coverage Type
HMO, EPO PPO, POS, Transplant

Aetna Medicare Advantage (MTA retirees only)

In Network Coverage Type
PPO

Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program

In Network Coverage Type
HMO, PPO

Blue Cross Blue Shield New York

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, POS, EPO, HMO

Blue Cross Blue Shield states outside of NY/NJ

In Network Coverage Type
HMO, EPO PPO, POS

Blue Cross Health Plus

In Network Coverage Type
HMO

Carrum Health

In Network Coverage Type
Supplemental

Cigna

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, POS, HMO

Connecticare

In Network Coverage Type
POS, EPO, HMO

Emblem

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, POS, EPO, HMO

Offers a qualified health plan from the Health Insurance Marketplace. Call Emblem to learn more.

Emblem Essential

In Network Coverage Type
HMO

Emblem Medicare Advantage (Medicare Choice PPO Network and VIP Prime Network Only)

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, HMO

Empire Blue Cross Medicare Advantage

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, HMO, DSN

Empire Essential

In Network Coverage Type
HMO

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

In Network Coverage Type
PPO

Fidelis

In Network Coverage Type
HMO, EPO

Offers a qualified health plan from the Health Insurance Marketplace. Call Fidelis to learn more.

Fidelis Managed Medicaid & HARP

In Network Coverage Type
HMO

Fidelis Medicare Advantage

In Network Coverage Type
HMO

First Health

In Network Coverage Type
PPO

Healthfirst

In Network Coverage Type
EPO, HMO, PPO, POS

Offers a qualified health plan from the Health Insurance Marketplace. Call Healthfirst to learn more.

Healthfirst Managed Medicaid

In Network Coverage Type
HMO

Healthfirst Medicare Advantage

In Network Coverage Type
HMO, PPO

Healthsmart

In Network Coverage Type
PPO EPO

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey (HMO)

In Network Coverage Type
HMO

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey (PPO)

In Network Coverage Type
PPO

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

In Network Coverage Type
EPO

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

In Network Coverage Type
EPO

Horizon Medicare Advantage

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, HMO

Husky CT Medicaid

In Network Coverage Type
State Government

Magnacare

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, POS, EPO

Straight NJ Medicaid

In Network Coverage Type
State Government

Straight NY Medicaid

In Network Coverage Type
State Government

Medicare Part A&B (traditional Medicare)

In Network Coverage Type
Federal Government

Multiplan/Beech Street/PHCS

In Network Coverage Type
Supplemental

MVP

In Network Coverage Type
PPO/OAP

Non-Participating Plans with Out of Network Benefits

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, POS, EPO, HMO

NYC Medicare Advantage Plus for City Employees

In Network Coverage Type
TBD

Oscar

In Network Coverage Type
HMO/EPO

Oxford

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, EPO

World Trade Center Health Program (WTC)

In Network Coverage Type
State Government

Qualcare

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, POS, HMO

Tricare

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, HMO

UMR

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, POS

United Healthcare

In Network Coverage Type
PPO, POS, HMO

Don't see your carrier or plan? We can help you understand your coverage.

If you don't have health insurance or are worried that your care may not be fully covered, our financial assistance programs may be able to help.

If you have questions about insurance, call us at 646-497-9176.

Make an Appointment

Current Patients

Request an appointment by logging on to MyMSK or calling your doctor’s office. If you aren’t registered for MyMSK, call 646-227-2593 for your Enrollment ID.

Contact and Location

Dr. Balachandran sees patients at one location.

Office Phone
Location
New York, NY
160 East 53rd Street New York NY 10022

Looking to see a doctor at a different location? See all MSK locations.

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.

See all Hepatopancreatobiliary Service doctors

Clinical Trials

Smiling doctors in the lab
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.

Search clinical trials

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
    Professional Services and Activities

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 a complement to other publicly reported data and 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, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). 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].


View all disclosures