• Overview
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Team leader, Kevin Watkins, MD, brings years of experience in surgical oncology to the team with a focus on management of liver, biliary, pancreatic, gastrointestinal, and esophageal lesions. The multidisciplinary team involves physicians who provide direct diagnostic and therapeutic care, surgery nurse specialists, and ancillary support staff who ensure that patients achieve the maximum benefit from their therapies.

• Kevin Watkins, MD, Team Leader, Chief of Upper Gastrointestinal and General Oncologic Surgery
• Philip Bao, MD
• Patricia Zirpoli, RN, Nurse Navigator
• Barbara Smith, NP

Gastrointestinal Medicine

• Douglas Brand, MD
• Jonathan Buscaglia, MD
• Chris Lascarides, MD
• Satish Nagula, MD
• Ramona Rajapakse, MD
• Robert Richards, MD
• Isabelle Von Althen-Dagum, MD

Pathology

• Galina Botchkina, MD
• Bernard Lane, MD
• Sui Zee, MD

Radiology

• Seth O. Mankes, MD
• Carl Tack, MD
• Marlene Zawin, MD

Radiation Oncology

• Bong Kim, MD

Medical Hematology/Oncology

• Roger Keresztes, MD
• Marisa Siebel, MD

• Diagnostics. The team strives to provide state-of-the-art diagnostics and works to build programs for the early recognition of tumors and other abnormal conditions of the upper gastrointestinal tract.
• Staging. A critical step in the management of upper GI cancers is accurate staging, which allows the team to distinguish patients with operable and inoperable disease. This may be done via endoscopic ultrasonography, computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan, and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning.
• Surgery. Surgery is the mainstay of therapy for most upper gastrointestinal cancers including metastatic disease to the liver. Within the past year the team performed the first-ever treatment of a previously untreatable pancreatic cancer utilizing a new technology known as irreversible electroporation (IRE). IRE utilizes brief high voltage electrical pulses to poke holes in cell membranes. This leads to the death of the cells within the area treated while preserving the support tissue. These effects allow for destruction of tumor cells near vital structures that were previously not possible. Stony Brook looks to be one of the lead institutions in a national trial of this technology for pancreatic cancer.
• Robotic Surgery. The surgical oncologists at Stony Brook performed their first robotic pancreatico-duodenectomy in November 2009, the first on Long Island. This procedure, also known as the Whipple procedure, is one of the most complex abdominal surgeries performed. Stony Brook is one of the few institutions in the country routinely performing this surgery with a minimally invasive approach.
• Minimally Invasive Techniques. The Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery Team is continuing to expand their use of minimally invasive surgical techniques in the management of complex GI tumors and other diseases. With the addition of Philip Bao, MD to the team, this service continues to grow, with liver, pancreas, stomach and esophageal resection frequently being performed with a minimally invasive approach. The benefits of this approach are faster recoveries and the ability of the patients to move on to other forms of treatment more rapidly.
• Palliative care. If the disease cannot be eradicated, the team strives to palliate the patient's symptoms, and improve the quality of life. The team actively tracks the quality of life of cancer survivors and works with Stony Brook's Palliative Care/Survivorship and Supportive Care program.

Our exceptional clinical support services contribute to coordinated care. These include Nutrition Services, Pain Management, Palliative Care/Survivorship and Supportive Care, Pharmacy Services, Physical and Occupational Rehabilitation, Therapeutic Yoga, and our Tumor Board. For more information, see Clinical Support Services.

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Cancer Helpline

Cancer Liaison Physician

Chaplaincy Services

Child Life Services

Community Outreach and Education

Finance Questions

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Patient Navigators

Preoperative Education

Publications

Social Work

Support Groups

For more information on our general patient services at Stony Brook, see For Patients and Visitors.

Philip Bao, MD, has joined the Division of Surgical Oncology and will focus his practice on treatment and management of malignant and benign tumors of the liver, pancreas, esophagus, and stomach using standard, and laparoscopic, and robotic surgical techniques. For advanced abdominal cancers, he provides new modalities such as heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for carcinomatosis. His research includes intra-operative tumor imaging and surgical navigation, as well as decision analysis for cancer management.

History-Making Procedure

Within the past year the Upper Gastrointestinal Oncology Team performed the first-ever treatment of a previously untreatable pancreatic cancer utilizing a new technology known as irreversible electroporation (IRE). IRE utilizes brief high voltage electrical pulses to poke holes in cell membranes. This leads to the death of the cells within the area treated while preserving the support tissue. These effects allow for destruction of tumor cells near vital structures that were previously not possible. Stony Brook looks to be one of the lead institutions in a national trial of this technology for pancreatic cancer.

Additional Sources of Information

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What You Should Know About Pancreatic Cancer by Kevin Watkins, MD