MITERA: Groundbreaking Procedure to Treat Pancreatic Cancer

The MITERA 1st Surgery Department team, headed by Dr. Grigoris Tsiotos, is introducing new standards in the surgical treatment of what to this day was considered inoperable pancreatic cancer. They recently performed groundbreaking total pancreatectomy with simultaneous removal of the abdominal aorta.

Note that to date a total of 31 such procedures have been recorded in scientific literature, a fact that underlines how complex and rare they are.

Specifically, Dr. Tsiotos and the MITERA 1st Surgery Department team, working closely with Dr. Fotis Milas, vascular surgeon at HYGEIA, undertook and successfully treated a patient with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, with involvement of the abdominal aorta, the common hepatic artery and the gastroduodenal artery. They proceeded with a groundbreaking surgical procedure, which included total pancreatectomy with simultaneous removal of the abdominal aorta and placement of a saphenous vein graft between the aorta and the proper hepatic artery. The patient progressed very well postoperatively. Following a short hospitalization at MITERA General Hospital, she returned to her regular activities.

This innovative procedure requires long and documented experience in advanced pancreatic surgery, and essentially paves the way for treatments for pancreatic cancer patients. To this end, it was published in the renowned International Journal of Surgery Case Reports in August 2022.

Commenting on the significance of this procedure for the future of patients with pancreatic cancer, Dr. Grigoris Tsiotos, Surgeon and Director of the MITERA 1st Surgery Department, noted, “The unique oncologic and anatomic features of the case described above make this procedure, which was performed for the first time in Greece, extremely rare and complex. However, a surgical team with long and proven experience in managing challenging pancreatic cancer procedures can safely perform such surgeries.”