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Pancreatic Cancer Treatments
As leaders in pancreatic cancer care, we’re at the forefront of innovative therapies and minimally invasive techniques using the latest technology. Our experienced team delivers advanced treatments in a caring environment. We’re passionate about providing you with customized care and comprehensive support.
- Internationally recognized expertise in treating all types and stages of pancreatic cancer using a range of surgical and nonsurgical options.
- Advanced techniques from a team of leading surgeons who have extensive experience removing even the most complex pancreatic tumors that other programs consider inoperable.
- Team-based treatment planning by pancreatic cancer specialists from surgery, medical oncology, radiation therapy, pathology, nuclear medicine, and interventional radiology who come together to develop a customized treatment approach for you.
- Unmatched experience with groundbreaking treatments, such as a combination of surgery and irreversible electroporation for locally advanced pancreatic cancer, complex vascular resection and reconstruction, and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for cancers that have advanced beyond the pancreas.
- Comprehensive support services to guide you through every step, improve your quality of life, and enhance your physical health and emotional well-being.
- Sophisticated genetic counseling services to evaluate a tumor’s genetic profile so we can make treatments more effective and help you assess your family’s cancer risk factors.
- Active clinical research program dedicated to finding more effective treatments for aggressive pancreatic cancer.
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Interested in an Online Second Opinion?
The Stanford Medicine Online Second Opinion program offers you easy access to our world-class doctors. It’s all done remotely, and you don’t have to visit our hospital or one of our clinics for this service. You don’t even need to leave home!
Visit our online second opinion page to learn more.
At Stanford Health Care, our team takes the time to explain your treatment options and answer any questions you may have. We work closely with you to determine the most appropriate treatment plan based on:
- Your age, overall health, and medical history
- Type and stage of cancer
- Size and location of the tumor, and whether it has spread
- Your tolerance of specific medicines, procedures, or therapies
- Expectations for the course of the disease
- Your opinion or preference
About 20% of people with pancreatic cancer are eligible for surgery to treat the disease. Your care team will explain the options available to you. Depending on several factors, you may need a procedure to remove all or part of the pancreas. Your doctor may recommend removing other organs as well.
To plan treatment, your care team may recommend laparoscopy. During this procedure, your doctor makes small incisions (cuts) and inserts a long, thin tool with a tiny camera on the end. Using the camera, they look inside your abdomen to see if cancer has spread beyond the pancreas and determine if surgery is the right option.
Pancreatic cancer surgeries can cause significant side effects, including diabetes and problems with digestion. Your team will discuss the risks, benefits, and possible side effects of surgery with you. There are several types of surgeries for pancreatic cancer:
- Whipple procedure: This procedure is the most common surgery for pancreatic cancer. The surgeon removes the head of the pancreas, part of the small intestine, the gallbladder, part of the stomach, and lymph nodes near the pancreas.
- Associating liver partition and portal vein litigation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS): Our team specializes in treating tumors that were previously considered unresectable (unremovable). We offer ALPPS, an advanced procedure that removes pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) that have spread to the liver.
- Distal pancreatectomy: If the tumor is located in the body and tail of the pancreas, the surgeon removes both of these sections. During this procedure, surgeons also remove the spleen. For small PNETs, the spleen may be saved.
- Total pancreatectomy: During this operation, the surgeon removes the entire pancreas, part of the small intestine, and stomach. They also remove the common bile duct, spleen, gallbladder, and some lymph nodes. This procedure is rarely used to treat pancreatic cancer due to the health issues that occur from living without a pancreas.
- Palliative surgery: For more advanced cancers, the goal of surgery may not be to cure the disease. Instead, surgeons focus on relieving symptoms or preventing complications. Examples of palliative surgery include repairing a blocked bile duct to aid with digestion or delivering a nerve block to alleviate pain.
These drugs destroy cancer cells or help your body fight them. You may take these medications by mouth, injection, or infusion, and you may need them along with other treatments. Cancer drugs include:
- Chemotherapy: Several types of medications shrink or destroy cancerous cells. Chemotherapy can also prevent cancer from spreading to other parts of your body.
- Immunotherapy: These innovative medications help your body’s immune system fight disease. The drugs enable your immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.
- Targeted therapy: This type of drug therapy interferes with the growth of cancer cells. The medications destroy cancer cells or slow their growth.
- Medications to relieve pain: Several types of pain medications can reduce discomfort and improve your quality of life.
You may receive cancer medications by mouth (orally) or as an injection or infusion (intravenously, or IV). In some cases, we may recommend receiving cancer medications using a method called hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, or HIPEC. With HIPEC, you receive high-dose chemotherapy directly to your abdomen during surgery. Stanford Health Care specializes in this advanced treatment, which involves fewer side effects than intravenous chemotherapy.
To treat pancreatic cancer, your doctor may recommend external radiation (external beam therapy). This painless treatment sends high levels of radiation directly to the cancer cells to destroy them.
Sometimes, doctors use stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) or stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR). This method uses fewer radiation doses, but each dose is stronger. Your team will explain the procedures and recommend the right one for you.
At Stanford Health Care, our team uses interventional radiology (IR) to destroy tumors, relieve pain, and address complications of pancreatic cancer. During IR procedures, doctors use imaging technology to guide the procedure and make treatments more precise. Our team primarily uses IR techniques to treat pancreatic cancer that has spread to the liver and other organs.
We are skilled at several minimally invasive IR procedures, including:
- Embolization: Doctors inject chemotherapy medications or other substances into the arteries that supply blood to a tumor. The substances block the blood flow to the tumor, causing the cells to die.
- Ablation: Doctors insert a long, thin tool (called a probe) into a tumor. They destroy the tumor using high-energy radio waves, concentrated alcohol, or extreme heat or cold.
- Nerve blocks: These procedures interrupt pain signals and prevent them from reaching the brain. Nerve blocks can help manage back pain and abdomen pain that often occur along with pancreatic cancer.
- Procedures to treat cancer complications: Doctors also use IR techniques to address a range of pancreatic cancer complications. For example, they may choose an IR procedure to place a stent in bile duct that is blocked by a tumor. Stents are small, hollow tubes that keep the duct open so bile can flow through.
Our team is skilled at using nuclear medicine therapy to treat pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. This treatment is also called peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT).
Over several outpatient visits, your doctor injects a medication into your veins through an IV. The medication, which includes radioactive material, travels through your body and:
- Recognizes cancer cells
- Attaches to proteins on the cancer cells
- Delivers radiation directly to the cancer cells, destroying them
To achieve the best possible outcome, your care team may recommend combining surgery with other treatments such as radiation therapy or chemotherapy. You may receive additional treatment in one of two ways:
- Neoadjuvant therapy: This treatment occurs before surgery to make it easier and more effective. Undergoing chemotherapy before surgery, for example, may shrink a tumor and make removal more successful.
- Adjuvant therapy: This treatment occurs after surgery to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back. Chemotherapy or radiation therapy after surgery can destroy remaining cancer cells.
Clinical Trials for Pancreatic Cancer
Clinical trials are research studies that evaluate a new medical approach, device, drug, or other treatment. As a Stanford Health Care patient, you may have access to the latest advanced clinical trials through the Stanford Cancer Institute.
Open trials refer to studies that are currently recruiting participants or that may recruit participants soon. Closed trials are not currently enrolling additional patients.