pancreatic cancer

World Pancreatic Cancer Day

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According to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program database, there will be an estimated 53,670 new pancreatic cancer cases this year in the U.S. While many patients still die from this disease, this proportion of patients has been stable for the last ten years, suggesting progress is being made in battling this challenging type of cancer.

“Pancreatic cancer and cancers of the liver and bile ducts are complicated and difficult to manage,” says Frank Spitz, MD, Hepatobiliary Surgeon and Deputy Director of MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper. Read more.

Mini-Whipple Among Medical Advances that Will Improve Healthcare for SJ Patients

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The December issue of SJ Magazine features an article about four new advances in healthcare that are taking place at South Jersey hospitals. The mini-Whipple procedure is now being performed at Cooper to help treat patients with pancreatic cancer. Cooper physicians are hoping that this new variation will bring the same results as the old procedure but with fewer risks.

New SpyGlass™ System Helping to Rule Out Pancreatic Cancer

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When a sharp pain in his abdomen landed Craig Blackman in a local emergency department, he asked for answers. Test after test, doctors could not determine the root cause of his pain. Suggestions of stones in his bile duct, a tumor in the pancreas and pancreatitis, were all investigated. Finally, he underwent an ERCP, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, a typical diagnostic test for location of stones, but none were detected. Mr. Blackman, of Medford saw Dr. Adam Elfant, Director of Therapeutic Endoscopy at the Cooper Digestive Health Institute for a procedure called SpyGlass™. Cooper is the only center in the region utilizing a new state-of-the-art direct visualization system known as SpyGlass ™. SpyGlass™ uses a precise fiber-optic camera, not much bigger than a pencil point, that is inserted through a catheter (or tube) into the upper digestive tract. Threaded through the stomach and into the bile ducts, the physician can “steer” the camera in four directions allowing them to pinpoint the exact spot they want to examine.