Pancreatic Cancer: Understand Every Treatment Option — Starting With Whether Surgery Is Possible
Chemotherapy, radiation, clinical trials, surgery — the order matters. For many patients the single most important question is whether the tumour can be removed, because that answer shapes every other decision. And it depends on who reads the scans. Prof. Dr. Büchler performs 600–800 pancreatic operations a year and gives you a written assessment within 24 hours.
600–800 operations/year · 0.8% mortality rate · 3,000+ Whipple procedures · Written assessment within 24 hours
Your information is transmitted over SSL and handled under GDPR. It is seen only by Prof. Büchler’s medical team. No obligation, and no cost for the assessment.
Before you choose a treatment path, answer one question
Most pancreatic cancer treatment plans are built around a single early decision: can the tumour be surgically removed? If yes, surgery followed by chemotherapy offers the best outcomes by a wide margin. If a centre says no, everything downstream — chemo-only, radiation, palliative care — follows from that “no.”
Here is what patients are rarely told: that “no” is not always a biological fact. It is often a statement about what is possible at that institution, with that surgical team, at their volume. A surgeon who performs 20 pancreatic operations a year and one who performs 600–800 draw the line between “operable” and “inoperable” in very different places — especially when major blood vessels are involved.
A second read of your scans by a high-volume specialist is the highest-value step you can take in the first weeks after diagnosis — whichever way the answer goes.
Where are you in the process?
Newly diagnosed, weighing options
You have a diagnosis and a stack of conflicting advice. The first thing worth establishing is whether surgery is on the table — because it changes every other decision. Get a specialist read of your scans before you commit to a path.
Told surgery isn't possible
You’ve been told the cancer is inoperable or unresectable. Prof. Büchler regularly operates on cases refused elsewhere — borderline resectable, vascular encasement, locally advanced, post-chemo. A refusal elsewhere is a starting point for our review, not the end.
Completed chemotherapy
Chemotherapy sometimes shrinks a tumour enough to open a surgical window that didn’t exist at diagnosis. If you finished chemo and were told surgery still isn’t possible, your current imaging deserves a fresh specialist review.
The main treatment options — and how they fit together
Why a high-volume specialist changes the answer
In pancreatic surgery, outcomes track directly with surgical volume. The threshold for calling a case “inoperable” is drawn in a fundamentally different place at 20 operations a year versus 600–800.
20 / year
Typical surgeon
600–800 / year
Prof. Dr. Büchler
- Complication familiarity — a high-volume team recognises and manages the difficult intra-operative moments as routine.
- Routine vascular reconstruction — resecting and rebuilding the portal vein or superior mesenteric artery is standard, not exceptional.
- 0.8% mortality — across the full spectrum of complexity, including the hardest cases.
- Decision based on surgical assessment, not institutional risk-aversion — the line between operable and inoperable is drawn by capability.
If you have had one assessment, you have one data point. A second assessment at this volume level is a different data point entirely.
How the assessment works
1. Submit your case (under a minute here)
Name, contact, and where you are in the process. That is all we need to start. No uploads on this page.
2. We ask for your imaging
After you submit, the team requests your CT / MRI / PET reports and pathology through a secure link.
3. Written expert assessment within 24 hours
Whether surgery may be possible, what information is still needed, and the recommended next steps. A real response from the medical team.
4. Consultation & coordination (if indicated)
Remote video for international patients; travel only if surgery is recommended and agreed.
No travel required for steps 1–3. Most patients complete step 1 in under a minute.
Practical questions — cost, travel, timing
- The written assessment is free and carries no obligation.
- Prof. Büchler treats patients privately / self-pay and through international patient services; the team provides a clear cost estimate for consultation and, if applicable, surgery before anything is scheduled.
- The initial review is remote. Travel to Heidelberg / Lisbon only becomes relevant if surgery is recommended and you decide to proceed.
- International patient coordination — scheduling, pre-op workup, arrival, aftercare — is handled by a dedicated team. Language support: English, German, Arabic.
Prof. Dr. Markus W. Büchler — in numbers
3,000+
Whipple procedures performed
0.8%
surgical mortality rate
600–800
pancreatic operations per year
40+
years of specialised pancreatic surgery
Director, Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Cancer Centre (Lisbon) · Chair of Surgical Oncology, University of Heidelberg. Pioneer of vascular-resection technique now used in complex pancreatic surgery; has trained surgeons across Europe and internationally.
Frequently asked questions
Send us your case
Before you commit to a treatment path, let one of the world’s most experienced pancreatic surgeons tell you whether surgery is possible. A written answer in 24 hours, at no cost.
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