Pancreatic Surgery

| General Overview |--------------

The Department of Pancreatic Surgery of Fudan University-affiliated Huashan Hospital was established in April 2010. It is Shanghai’s first clinical department specializing in the comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic diseases, serves as the main body of Fudan University Institute of Pancreatic Diseases, and is the birthplace and established base of the Pancreatic Cancer Professional Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, the Pancreatic Cancer Professional Committee of the Shanghai Anti-Cancer Association, the Pancreatic Diseases Special Committee of the Shanghai Association of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, and the Pancreatic Tumor Multidisciplinary Cancer Professional Committee of the Oncology Branch of the Shanghai Association of Social Medical Institutions.

The establishment and development of Huashan Hospital’s Department of Pancreatic Surgery have resulted from the unremitting efforts of several generations. They embody both the transmission of medical expertise and the direction of progress in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic diseases. Beginning in the 1980s, Professor Zhang Yanling, lifelong professor of Huashan Hospital and renowned surgeon, initiated a series of studies on biliary and pancreatic diseases, the pathogenesis of acute severe pancreatitis, and comprehensive treatment. Professor Ni Quanxing, senior professor of Huashan Hospital, director of General Surgery, and renowned pancreatic surgeon, then devoted himself to “new strategies for the early diagnosis and stage-specific comprehensive treatment of pancreatic cancer” and “the characteristics of lymph-node metastasis in pancreatic cancer and interventional treatment.” Subsequently, Professor Fu Deliang, current director of Huashan Hospital’s Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Shanghai Outstanding Academic Leader, and Shanghai Medical Leading Figure, has devoted himself to and advocated “early diagnosis and precision surgery for pancreatic tumors” and “research on multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment of pancreatic cancer based primarily on surgery and guided by tumor biological characteristics.” Huashan pancreatic surgery has advanced steadily and perseveringly, like the foolish old man who moved mountains. The department currently has 3 chief physicians, 6 associate chief physicians, 5 attending physicians, and 3 resident physicians, including 3 clinical professors and 2 associate professors; 3 doctoral supervisors and 2 master’s supervisors. It continues to advance simultaneously in medical care, education, and research.

Benefiting from Huashan Hospital’s vertically integrated management model across multiple campuses, the Department of Pancreatic Surgery now provides inpatient diagnosis and treatment and outpatient medical services for pancreatic diseases simultaneously at the Huashan Hospital headquarters and the Huashan Hospital Pudong Campus (the Huashan Hongqiao Campus and Baoshan Campus currently provide outpatient services only). At present, Huashan pancreatic surgery performs approximately 600 pancreatic resection operations of various types each year, of which approximately 75% are level-IV procedures. Minimally invasive procedures (laparoscopic and robotic) account for approximately 25% at the same time, and the department’s surgical quality-control indicators rank among the best in Shanghai. Each year, Huashan pancreatic surgery also performs image-guided arterial interventional treatment with DSA for pancreatic tumors in more than 400 cases, and carries out more than 700 procedures for pancreatic disease diagnosis and treatment using complex digestive endoscopy and endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS). Its overall volume ranks among the highest in China; in particular, endoscopic-ultrasound-guided confocal laser endomicroscopy of pancreatic cystic tumors (EUS+nCLE) is at an internationally advanced level, with the largest single-center volume.

| Disciplinary Features/Subspecialty Features |--------------

The department remains committed to its innovative medical service brand: “Precision, speed and rapid recovery, walking the pancreatic path together—A new model of comprehensive multidisciplinary services for patients with pancreatic cancer.” Huashan pancreatic surgery has always focused on the dialectical relationship between pancreatic organ diseases and the overall condition of the human body. It strives to practice and explore three areas: precision diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic diseases, comprehensive treatment of pancreatic tumors through multidisciplinary collaboration, and the rational performance of pancreatic surgery. Huashan pancreatic surgery makes comprehensive use of biochemical testing, functional imaging, endoscopic ultrasonography, molecular pathology, and other technical approaches available within the hospital. Through multidisciplinary collaboration, it continually optimizes the pancreatic disease diagnosis-and-treatment system, seeking to improve the timeliness and accuracy of diagnosis, formulate precise treatment plans and precision-surgery decisions, and meet the medical needs and goals of the large number of patients with pancreatic diseases. To improve the public’s awareness and ability to recognize pancreatic diseases, the department also makes every effort to actively carry out public education related to pancreatic diseases.

In response to complex and varied pancreatic diseases, Huashan pancreatic surgery has established corresponding subspecialty teams: the Pancreatic Cancer Comprehensive Treatment Team, Pancreatic Cystic Tumor Team, Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Team, Pancreatic Solid Pseudopapillary Tumor Team (establishing the SPD Fudan Index), and Pancreatic Inflammation Team. For benign or potentially malignant pancreatic tumors, the department performs precise assessment and appropriately scaled surgical intervention. For malignant pancreatic tumors, it conducts scientific multidisciplinary assessment according to tumor stage, actively carries out neoadjuvant and conversion comprehensive treatment, and works to improve resectability, radicality, and safety, with the aim of improving patients’ long-term survival and quality of life.

In addition to routinely performing all types of pancreatic surgery—open, laparoscopic, and robotic—Huashan pancreatic surgery actively performs radical surgery for pancreatic cancer combined with vascular resection, including innovative approaches such as portal-vein resection with prosthetic-vessel replacement and reconstruction, and arterial-sheath stripping with arterial reinforcement using artificial materials. These approaches significantly improve the radicality and safety of surgery. According to the specific tumor location and the requirements of the pancreatic organ’s exocrine and endocrine functions, the department also performs a variety of parenchyma-preserving tumor resections, such as spleen-preserving total pancreatectomy, subtotal pancreatectomy preserving part of the pancreatic tail and the spleen, duodenum-preserving resection of pancreatic-head tumors, and spleen-preserving resection of the pancreatic body and tail. These procedures preserve organ function to the greatest extent and improve patients’ postoperative quality. Through a pancreatic-surgery-led multidisciplinary collaborative care model, the department addresses the multiple needs of patients with pancreatic diseases in an all-round manner. For example, in collaboration with the Department of Gastroenterology and the Department of Anesthesiology, it performs natural-orifice transluminal drainage of infected pancreatic necrotic material and interventional treatment for refractory pain caused by pancreatic tumors; in collaboration with the Department of Endocrinology and the Nursing Department, it performs dynamic perioperative blood-glucose monitoring and manages pancreaticogenic glycemic lability; and in collaboration with the Department of Clinical Nutrition and the Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, it provides nutritional support during pancreatic and gastric surgery and traditional Chinese medicine-based conditioning.

| Teaching |--------------

Keeping pace with the reforms in medical education and clinical training at Fudan University Shanghai Medical College and Huashan Clinical Medical College, Huashan pancreatic surgery not only undertakes undergraduate, graduate, and international-student surgery teaching and clinical instruction for Fudan University Shanghai Medical College, but also undertakes standardized training for surgical residents and pancreatic-surgery specialists at Huashan Hospital. The department supports continuing specialty education by accepting physicians for further training and organizing study courses. It leads 2 national continuing-education projects and holds the study courses “New Technologies and Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer” and “Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cystic Tumors and Decision Analysis” every year. Through the annual Huashan Pancreatic Forum, it invites renowned experts and academic colleagues from China and abroad to share advances in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic diseases, discuss numerous hot topics in pancreatic surgery, and reach consensus. The department has appointed Andrew L. Warshaw, president of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), as its overseas honorary professor, and regularly sends clinical physicians to Harvard Medical School in the United States (Massachusetts General Hospital) and Ruhr University Medical School in Germany (St. Josef Hospital) for clinical observation and further training.

| Research |--------------

Based on clinical hot spots and difficult problems, the department conducts research on mechanisms related to liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer, the characteristics of lymphatic metastasis from pancreatic cancer and interventions, precision treatment of pancreatic cancer, and clinical research on AI-assisted diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic tumors. It has received funding for various national-, provincial/ministerial-, and Shanghai-level projects, including 1 subproject task under a National Major Science and Technology Project, 1 National Key Research and Development Program project, 8 National Natural Science Foundation of China projects, and multiple projects from the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology and the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission. Related research findings have been published in professional journals in China and abroad, including 53 SCI-indexed articles in NEJM, Lancet, Gut, EJC, BJS, Natural Communication, and other journals; the department holds 3 granted invention patents. Some research findings have been successfully translated into clinical practice, and the relevant concepts have been adopted by the Pancreatic Surgery Group of the Chinese Medical Association and the Pancreatic Cancer Professional Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association and incorporated into guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Since 2018, with funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Sino-German Center for Research Promotion), Professor Fu Deliang of Fudan University-affiliated Huashan Hospital and Professor Roland Schmid of Klinikum rechts der Isar, affiliated with the Technical University of Munich (Technishe Universitat Munchen), Germany, have jointly led the Sino-German collaborative research group on “Precision Medicine for Pancreatic Cancer.” Medical scientists from both countries in pancreatic surgery, digestive endoscopy, nuclear medicine, anesthesiology, pathology, endocrinology, and other fields conduct regular two-way exchanges and visits. They carry out academic exchanges on precision diagnosis, prognostic prediction, and clinically translational treatment of pancreatic cancer, respectively, and continually explore innovative international collaborations, particularly application scenarios for artificial-intelligence technologies based on medical big data.

| Departmental Honors |--------------

Huashan pancreatic surgery has received funding for two Clinical Key Specialty (Surgery and Oncology) projects of the Ministry of Health. It has carried out a number of clinical innovations, including “stage-specific comprehensive treatment of pancreatic cancer” (recipient of the Third Prize in Clinical Medicine in Shanghai), “clinical and basic research on the characteristics of lymph-node metastasis in pancreatic cancer and interventional treatment,” “multi-phase interventional chemotherapy for resectable pancreatic cancer,” and “establishment of an optimized system for the early diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.” These innovations have not only significantly increased the resection and survival rates of pancreatic tumors in terms of therapeutic efficacy, but have also earned recognition and acclaim from peers in China and abroad through the dissemination of the technologies.

The current department director, Professor Fu Deliang, is a Shanghai Outstanding Academic Leader and Shanghai Medical Leading Figure. He serves as Vice Chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) (2025); Vice Chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Professional Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association; Deputy Head of the Pancreatic Oncology Group of the Oncology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; Vice Chair of the Pancreatology Branch of the China Association for Promotion of International Medical and Health Care Exchange; a member of the Pancreatic Surgery Group of the General Surgery Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; a member of the General Surgery Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; and a Standing Committee Member of the Specialized Committee on Abdominal Oncology of the China Medical Education Association. He is also Chair of the Pancreatic Diseases Special Committee of the Shanghai Association of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine and Chair of the Pancreatic Tumor Multidisciplinary Professional Committee of the Oncology Branch of the Shanghai Association of Social Medical Institutions.