Great question. There’s growing evidence that surgical treatment might help some patients with oligo-metastatic pancreatic cancer, which refers to pancreatic cancer that has spread to a limited number of sites. But it’s very important to carefully choose who this approach is right for, so we don’t cause more harm than good.

Usually, I like to see that a patient has had 6 to 12 months of systemic treatment without the cancer getting worse, a decreasing CA 19-9, and very limited sites of disease (1-3) that can be definitively treated.