Award-winning C are Surgical expertise allows patients with liver cancer to stay in Syracuse A liver cancer diagnosis used to come with little hope. “That’s changing,” says Dilip Kittur MD, chief of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery at Upstate. He began offering surgery to treat people with cancer of the liver, bile ducts, gallbladder and pancreas in 2005, because so many patients had to leave Central New York to get care. Dr. Kittur’s background in transplant surgery, immunology and endocrinology allowed him to easily expand into treatment of these cancers. And this fall a second surgeon, Krit Kitisin MD joined the Upstate team. Cancers of these internal organs are often found at late stages, because symptoms don’t become apparent until the disease has progressed. Most liver cancers are secondary, meaning the cancer has spread to the liver from elsewhere in the body, often the colon.
About 60 to 65 percent of liver tumors are in the right lobe. In those cases, removing the entire lobe will allow the organ to regenerate, or grow back healthy. Dr. Kittur says if the tumor is successfully removed, patients have up to a 50 percent survival rate five years after surgery. ■
Increased Risks You increase your risk of developing liver cancer if you: • have hepatitis B or C • abuse alcohol • develop diabetes • are obese • drink well water that contains arsenic You increase your risk of developing pancreatic cancer if you: • have cirrhosis of the liver
Treatment may involve removing the cancer through surgery, or shrinking the tumor first and then operating.
• smoke or use smokeless tobacco • develop diabetes
Depending on the size and location of the tumor, Dr. Kittur may recommend blocking the tumor’s blood supply with beads of chemotherapy in a process called chemoembolization. He also may use radiofrequency ablation to burn the tumor.
• are obese • spend lots of time around certain pesticides, dyes and chemicals
Dilip Kittur MD
Source: American Cancer Society
New Cancer Center Staff Michael A. LaCombe MD (at right) joins the Department of Radiation Oncology as an assistant professor. He comes to Upstate from the Radiation Medicine Institute in Evanston, Ill. LaCombe received his medical degree from Upstate. He will specialize in radiation oncology and is currently accepting new patients. Vanessa Gibson MD (at right) joins Upstate as an assistant professor of surgery. She is a graduate of the University of Louisville School of Medicine. She did her surgical residency at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and completed a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Gibson will concentrate on esophageal and thoracic malignancies. Jenna Owen joins the cancer center staff as a medical office assistant at Upstate’s Regional Oncology Center.
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