Saint Barnabas Launches Pancreatic Cyst Surveillance Program

LIVINGSTON, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of Saint Barnabas Medical Center. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.

Saint Barnabas Medical Center (SBMC) recently launched a breakthrough Pancreatic Cyst Surveillance Program. As a high-volume pancreatic cancer center, Saint Barnabas Medical Center partnered with Eon, a healthcare technology company, to create a first-of-its-kind digital platform to identify, track, follow and monitor patients with pancreatic cysts. This program uses a new cloud-based system that automatically highlights patients when incidental scans, such as an MRI, CT scan or ultrasound, discover pancreatic cysts, so at-risk people can be contacted for potential follow-up.

“Approximately 15 percent of Americans are walking around with a pancreatic cyst. Of those, the risk of the cyst becoming cancerous can be as high as 60 percent and as low as 2 percent,” says Russell Langan, MD, Chief of Surgical Oncology and Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery at SBMC and Surgical Oncologist at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Some cysts don’t require immediate surgery but should be monitored regularly for particular changes that may suggest an increased risk of malignancy.”

Patients who elect to enroll in the Pancreatic Cyst Surveillance Program at SBMC are followed by a pancreatic expert who will stratify and assess the risk of the cyst becoming cancerous. Additionally, a nurse navigator will help these patients schedule the necessary screening, procedures or surgery.

“This program increases the quality of care for pancreatic cyst patients. It helps determine the appropriateness of surgery to prevent patients from having unnecessary procedures when the risk of complications is greater than the risk of cancer,” says Dr. Langan. “If the patient does need to have surgery, it is important that it be done at a high-volume pancreatic cancer center with highly-specialized surgeons, like Saint Barnabas Medical Center.”

Saint Barnabas Medical Center has a team of multidisciplinary specialists with a compassionate and innovative approach to patients with pancreatic cysts and pancreatic cancer. Through our partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, patients have access to the full spectrum of advanced surveillance and treatment options for pancreatic cysts and pancreatic cancer including complex surgical techniques, clinical trials, precision medicine, immunotherapy and innovative radiation therapy procedures.

If you have been diagnosed with a pancreatic cyst, contact the Pancreatic Cyst Surveillance Program at Saint Barnabas Medical Center by calling 973-322-6652.

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