New surgery technique for pancreatic cancer offers hope to sufferers

Just days after it was announced in the media that Hollywood actor Patrick Swayze was being treated for pancreatic cancer, doctors in Britain have performed a new operation for people with the advanced stage of the disease.

The operation pioneered in the U.S. was used for the first time by surgeons at London's Royal Free Hospital on a woman.

The new technique involved cutting away the tumour and portal vein, a major vessel near the pancreas, and replacing it with the jugular vein from the neck.

The operation was carried out in December last year and the woman is said to be recovering well.

Doctors say without the surgery the patient would undoubtedly have died within six months or a year's time.

Experts say the technique is exciting as it enables a whole new group of patients to be offered the opportunity for surgery which could help up to 700 people a year.

Currently there is no treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer and most patients rarely survive beyond six months.

The surgery is unique in that it removes the portal vein as well as the tumour because pancreatic cancer often invades that part of the abdomen as it progresses.

Even those diagnosed with the disease in the earlier stages which can sometimes be treated with chemotherapy or surgery have a small chance of surviving beyond five years; of the 7,400 people who get it each year just 3% are alive five years later.

Surgeon Kito Fusai, who performed the first procedure with his colleague Dinesh Sharma, says the technique was exciting as it means that if the cancer is discovered before it has spread to other major organs such as the liver or lungs, it may be treatable.

Dr. Fusai says however that currently only a small proportion of patients - around 10% - are suitable for surgery and the only treatment for the vast majority of patients is chemotherapy or palliative treatment.

Nevertheless the surgery is expected to save many hundreds of lives.

In the U.S. a team at the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas, has operated on 55 patients showing encouraging survival rates.

The Royal Free Hospital says the treatment, which is aimed at those with advanced tumours that have spread to the portal vein, could double the number of patients operated on in the UK each year.

Symptoms for pancreatic cancer include jaundice, back or abdominal pain, weight loss and loss of appetite.

Doctors treating Patrick Swayze say the disease spread is very limited and he is responding well to treatment.