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Family and Friends of Muzzi Mirza Support Pancreas Center with $2M Gift
Family and friends of the late Muzzi Mirza, have made gifts and pledges totaling more than $2 million in support of the Muzzi Mirza Pancreatic Cancer Prevention & Genetics Program at the Columbia University Pancreas Center. The campaign that established the program was led by Mr. Mirza's wife, Susan, and his former business associates, Stephen Berger, Paul Barnett, Douglas Hitchner, William Hopkins, Brian Kwait, and Douglas Rotatori.
Muzzi Mirza, an investment banking entrepreneur who emigrated to the U.S. from Lahore, Pakistan in 1958, succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2007.
John A. Chabot, MD, Director, Pancreas Center |
Patients visiting NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center will frequently see and hear the term "multidisciplinary center."
While the significance of the term may go unrecognized by some, the presence of such centers can be vital, if not lifesaving, for conditions requiring comprehensive care across multiple specialties.
Such is the case with the Pancreas Center.
Directed by John A. Chabot, MD, FACS, this special team treats patients with pancreatitis, pancreatic and duodenal cancer, as well as precancerous conditions of the pancreas and duodenum.
For patients with pancreatic tumors, clinical management has become increasingly complex, with the advances in surgical, oncologic, and endoscopic techniques.
At NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is not only vital to providing surgeons with crucial information regarding treatment options for patients with pancreatic diseases, but it is also expanding therapeutic options.
Thirty-five percent of people who develop pancreatic cancer are considered inoperable because the cancer invades blood vessels surrounding the pancreas, such as the portal vein.
At many hospitals, patients are turned down for surgery even though their cancer has not spread to other organs.
Surgeons at the Columbia University Pancreas Center have developed special surgical protocols that enable them to successfully operate on the vessels to completely remove patients' cancer.
William B. Inabnet, MD, Chief, Section of Endocrine Surgery |
Insulinomas are rare tumors of the pancreas that produce too much insulin. Usually less than two centimeters in size, insulinomas are benign (noncancerous) in 90% of cases.
Without treatment, however, the extra insulin causes patients' blood sugar to drop, and can cause symptoms such as weakness, tremors, anxiety, hunger, headache, and in severe cases, coma or even death.
In a recent case, William B. Inabnet, MD, Chief, Section of Endocrine Surgery, was able to spare a patient from having to undergo major surgery by devising a completely novel solution.
The Columbia University Pancreas Center, nationally known for its superior surgical procedures, innovative chemotherapy treatment, and pioneering prevention program, routinely relies on PET imaging (positron emission tomography), to guide treatment decisions.
For tracking pancreatic cancer and its metastases to other organs, say Columbia faculty, PET's sensitivity is often superior to any other type of imaging procedure.
Pancreatic cancer is known to resist chemotherapy, forcing oncologists to use second and third lines of defense.
To meet this challenge, Robert Fine, MD, Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medicine, an oncologist who works with the Pancreas Center to treat its patients, has developed several multiple-drug chemotherapy regimens.
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