Surgery is often the only treatment that can completely cure bile duct cancer. But it can be complicated — and requires a team with a wealth of experience caring for patients with this rare cancer.
Fortunately, Iswanto Sucandy, MD, a board-certified and fellowship-trained gastrointestinal and hepatopancreatobiliary surgeon at AdventHealth Tampa, is shifting his approach. Using minimally invasive robotic surgery, he and his team are making strides in bile duct cancer treatment.
What is Bile Duct Cancer?
Bile is a substance that helps you digest food. Your liver makes bile that is then stored in your gallbladder. Bile duct cancer is a type of cancer that affects the thin tubes (ducts) that carry bile from your liver and gallbladder and through to your small intestines.
There are different types of bile duct cancer but one of the most common is perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (also called perihilar duct cancer or Klatskin tumor). These tumors start where the two bile ducts leaving the liver merge.
A New Surgical Approach Improves Recovery — and Outcomes
Bile duct cancer surgery is nothing new, but it’s a complex procedure that must be done by a specially trained surgeon. Given this high degree of specialization, most cancer centers conduct bile duct surgery as an open procedure.
Since bile duct tumors are in a difficult part of the body where blood supply goes to the liver, cancer can easily invade the artery and vein that bring blood to the liver. And that means surgeons must be prepared to perform a procedure called vascular resection to remove the affected blood vessels.
“While we can usually see if blood vessels are invaded by cancer ahead of time, we frequently find this cancer invasion while we’re performing the surgery,” says Dr. Sucandy. “So, we need to have a full team ready to go in the operating room for these reconstructions, just in case.”
One of the other things that complicates this procedure is that surgeons must reconstruct the bile duct before finishing the surgery — a process that’s difficult to do with minimally invasive techniques. Fortunately, however, Dr. Sucandy and his team have been using robotic surgery to complete this reconstruction with precision since 2019.
“What’s unusual about our team is that we can offer this minimally invasive approach,” says Dr. Sucandy. “And it makes such a difference to patients from across the country, they travel the distance to Tampa.”
Successful Bile Duct Cancer Care Takes a Team
Because of the complexity of treating bile duct cancer, many patients need chemotherapy before their surgery to shrink tumors or after surgery to keep cancer at bay. This complication makes the need for multidisciplinary coordination among the cancer team even greater.
Fortunately, even before beginning bile duct cancer treatment, the AdventHealth cancer team, which includes surgical, medical and radiation oncologists, comes together to discuss each bile duct cancer patient. From finding the right time to perform surgery so we can limit disruptions to their chemotherapy to finding the best treatment options for them, we work in tandem to create a comprehensive and highly personalized care plan.
Benefits of Minimally Invasive Bile Duct Cancer Surgery
Patients with bile duct cancer can gain many benefits from this robotic procedure, including:
• Faster return to chemotherapy
• Less blood loss
• Quicker return to daily activities and work
• Reduced wound complications
• Shorter recovery time
While this procedure is only performed in the U.S. at AdventHealth Tampa, Dr. Sucandy has worked with expert surgeons in Italy and Portugal on research to study, improve and share this technique so we can bring this procedure to more patients worldwide.
“We’re able to sync with other centers on research and put our experience in robotic bile duct cancer surgery together,” says Dr. Sucandy. “Collaboration with other centers means we’re bringing a lot of experience of robotic techniques that can help patients.”
Stopping Cancer with the Latest Tech
With robotic surgery, bile duct cancer surgery has gotten more precise, more effective and less invasive — which means a faster recovery and better outcomes for you.
Take charge of your health. Learn more about robotic cancer surgery at AdventHealth Tampa.
About Dr. Sucandy
Dr. Iswanto Sucandy is a highly experienced board-certified surgeon with dual fellowship training in Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, as well as Advanced Gastrointestinal Minimally Invasive Surgery. He primarily specializes in minimally invasive and robotic surgery for disorders of the liver.
