Pancreatic Cancers
Pancreatic cancers are often aggressive cancers and the treatment depends on the extent of spread of the cancer and overall health of the patient. Your doctor will advice you the exact treatment plan after a thorough evaluation and adequate investigations which may include a CT scan, MRCP and even an endoscopic evaluation.
The main stay in the treatment of pancreatic cancer is surgery. Though the surgeries take long hours and involve complex procedures, with advances in anaesthesia, medical and intensive care, and better equipment; these surgeries have now become safe and involve a very low mortality rate. The surgery required depends on the location of the tumor.
Lesions located in the head of the pancreas are treated by a surgery called the Whipple’s Surgery or Pancreatoduodenectomy. It involves removal of the pancreatic head together with the duodenum, part of the bile duct and the gall bladder. The continuity is then restored by anastomosing the remnant pancreas, the bile duct and finally the stomach to the jejunum.
Lesions located in the body and tail of pancreas are treated by a surgery called as distal pancreatectomy. It involves removal of the body and tail of the pancreas and may involve removal of the spleen as well.
Dr. Sanket Mehta not only performs these surgeries routinely, he also performs distal pancreatic surgery by the laparoscopic approach. His study on laparoscopic distal pancreatic surgery and its advantages has been published in Surgical Endoscopy, the highest rated endoscopy journal.