Anyone had pancreatic whipple surgery with a portal vein resection?

Had my Whipple done back in 2013, At that time, my surgeons main concern was that I had no artery involvement at all. Be very cautious on what is allowed to be done maybe a couple of opinions! Godspeed and good luck.

There is a hepatic artery and a portal vein but not a portal artery. I had a portal vein resection as part of my Whipple surgery in 2012. Of the three surgeons on the team, two were highly experienced in not only doing the Whipple procedure but were liver transplantation and vascular surgeons as well.

When I was opened on the OR, what was imaged and thought to be close proximity of the tumor to the portal vein was in contact and surgical pathology showed it had penetrated the vascular wall. The portal vein resection took an additional 3 hours and three units of blood making the surgery 9.5 hours and in the OR under anesthesia 11 hours.

That’s amazing that you are still here to tell your story!!! How do you feel now?

I feel as good as I did before onset of illness. Made a complete recovery but it took a lot of effort, determination and perseverance. Recovery would have gone faster and a better quality of life sooner had my surgeon prescribed a pancrealipase. Once that occurred, my quality of life improved significantly ending GI tract symptoms for good.

Things which helped in achieving a better outcome was having been younger and physically fit to handle aggressive chemo. I had a healthy lifestyle since a teenager. I chose an NCI designated center of excellence with a pancreas program and having to travel there was not a deterrence. Members of my care team had a lot of experience with pancreatic cancer patients and my oncologist was open to my doing aggressive chemotherapy with Folfirinox.

My husband is 76 which scares me for him to go through with this. He take Creon with every meal and Will probably be on that forever. It’s also very expensive.

Abbvie which is the manufacturer of Creon has a patient assistance program that provides its product free of charge for those on Medicare if qualified based on financial need. All of the other pancrealipase manufacturers offer similar programs.

PATIENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS FOR PANCREALIPASE
https://www.creon.com/creon-support-programs
https://www.creoninfo.com
https://www.zenpep.com/savings-programs
https://pertzyecares/chiesi/caredirect/
https://www.nestlehealthscience.us/patient-assistance-program

Positive portal vein margin plus one positive lymph node after whipple procedure. Any success stories of complete remission/ NED with chemo?

More important to know whether your margins were clear. I had positive 3 lymph nodes and nerve tissue involvement which really scared me, but margins were clear. Just did 9 of 12 rounds of Folfirinox, CA19-9 remaining very low since surgery, and CT scans all clear. Hang in there!

Thanks for the input

Hi @twoboys, I moved your post about portal vein involvement discovered during surgery to this related discussion:
- Anyone had pancreatic whipple surgery with a portal vein resection? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/seeing-if-anyone-has-had-pancreatic-whipple-surgery-with-a-portal-arte/

Click the link to see helpful and hopeful posts from @stageivsurvivor and others.

Are you preparing for chemo treatment? What regimen will you be getting?