Pancreatitis: A lifestyle monster

DR HELMUT Friess is known as one of the topmost surgeons of pancreatic ailments in the world. He flew down on Friday to Lucknow to share his experiences with gastrointestinal surgeons who have gathered from all over the country at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) for the ongoing XVI National Conference of the Indian Association of Surgical Gastroenterology (IASG).

DR HELMUT Friess is known as one of the topmost surgeons of pancreatic ailments in the world. He flew down on Friday to Lucknow to share his experiences with gastrointestinal surgeons who have gathered from all over the country at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) for the ongoing XVI National Conference of the Indian Association of Surgical Gastroenterology (IASG).

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Before he addresses the surgeons on Saturday, he cautions general masses on pancreatic cancers.

“Once diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, only go to a medical centre of excellence for treatment. It is a highly complicated and dangerous surgery and a really experienced centre that gets a lot of cases per year can manage it well,” said Dr Friess.

Surgery is the only option for survival after getting this cancer, he said.

“Among all cancer deaths in the world, every fourth one is due to pancreatic cancer. This is largely due to the fact that pancreatic cancer’s prognosis is very poor all over the world. In most of the other cancers, prognosis is far better,” said the young surgeon who is a professor of surgery and vice-chairman of Department of General Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Germany.