System’s First Robotic Whipple Advances Pancreatic Cancer Care

A surgical oncology team led by Sandra DiBrito, MD, PhD, performed Albany Medical Center’s first robotic Whipple operation—a complex surgery commonly performed on patients with pancreatic cancer or other tumors to remove the head of the pancreas and associated structures.

This minimally invasive approach enables patients to go home sooner, recover faster, and resume life sooner—significantly smaller incisions in the abdomen result in less pain after  surgery and less scar tissue.

While patients commonly ask if their surgeries can be done laparoscopically, Dr. DiBrito said the patient must also be a good candidate for robotic procedures, as not all patients are safe  to have minimally invasive surgery.

“Albany Med is a place where you can have absolute cutting-edge robotic surgeries of any type,” said Dr. DiBrito. “We will do your aggressive cancer surgery robotically if we can, and we will get you healing as fast as we can.”

This milestone highlights the System’s commitment to staying at the forefront of surgical innovation, ensuring patients have access to advanced, specialized care without leaving the region. Only select centers across the country offer complex hepatobiliary surgery robotically.