Pancreatic Disease Treatments

UCLA is a leading research hospital. We offer the most advanced pancreatic cancer and pancreatic disease treatments currently available, including several only available at a handful of hospitals nationwide.

Our innovative practice model includes multiple specialists available to you in one clinic. This setup helps you get treated faster with fewer appointments.

Learn more about our treatments:

• Pancreatic cancer treatments
• Minimally-invasive interventional endoscopy
• High-precision diagnosis and radiotherapy
• Auto-islet transplant
• Biologics
• Chronic pancreatitis treatments

Pancreatic cancer treatments

While a pancreatic cancer diagnosis may have you feeling sad and overwhelmed, we want you to know there is hope for a cure, even for advanced patients. Our survival rates are among the best in the nation, with a centralized clinic structure that helps patients get into surgery quickly.

Our specialists design personalized treatment plans based on your specific needs. Pancreatic cancer treatment may include:

• Pancreatic cancer surgery: Our experienced surgeons perform more than 100 operations annually, and our surgery patients live more than twice as long as patients elsewhere. We also have experience removing tumors from patients who wouldn’t normally be eligible for pancreatic cancer surgery.
• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy uses powerful drugs to kill cancer cells and may be given with or without surgery. Our medical oncologists prescribe customized combinations of drugs based on molecular analysis of the tumor. We also offer many clinical trial opportunities. 
• Radiation therapy: Radiation oncology uses high-energy beams to target cancer cells. Radiation oncologists may prescribe radiation alone or combined with surgery and/or chemotherapy.

Minimally-invasive interventional endoscopy

The UCLA Center for Pancreatic Disease has the largest interventional endoscopy team in Los Angeles. Interventional endoscopy is a minimally invasive technique used to diagnose and treat pancreatic disease.

It involves diagnosis and treatment using a thin, flexible tube (endoscope) inserted into the digestive tract. For eligible patients, interventional endoscopy is a great alternative to open surgery.

Discover why so many patients come to UCLA for interventional endoscopy treatments.

High-precision diagnosis and radiotherapy

UCLA is one of the only places in the country where patients with neuroendocrine tumors can receive DOTA-TATE Gallium-68 PET scan and PRRT (peptide receptor radionuclide therapy). These treatments let doctors target and destroy cancer cells with high precision, leaving healthy cells intact.

Learn more about our advanced imaging and diagnosis services.

Auto-islet transplant

UCLA is the only hospital in the Southwest where patients can receive an auto-islet transplant for chronic pancreatitis.

This procedure involves the removal of the pancreas (total pancreatectomy) and then the transplantation of pancreatic cells into the liver. In many cases, this allows the body to produce its own insulin, so fewer patients need lifelong insulin injections.

Learn more about auto-islet transplant.