Life-saving surgeries occur almost every day at NYU Langone Long Island, but one on Jan. 6 was unusual.
Not only was Robert Picariello’s case of bile duct cancer a form of the disease known as extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, seen in only .3 patients out of a million in the United States, said Dr. Gary Deutsch, chief of the hospital’s surgical oncology program – It serves as a reminder of the importance of catching cancer early and raising the alarm to your doctors when you feel something is off.
“He noticed something wasn’t right about him,” Deutsch, who performed Picariello’s surgery, said. “He just didn’t feel like himself. So, he sought medical care pretty promptly.”
The prompt response allowed his cancer to be caught when it was just four millimeters in size. Deutsch said because of this, Picariello may not have to go through chemotherapy to treat the cancer successfully.
Picariello, a longtime resident of Hempstead, said this experience has made him feel strongly about the need for people to take the time to look after their health.
“I think men tend to be a little stubborn and ignore symptoms,” Picariello said. “And I’m like, seriously, if you feel something, go get it checked out. The worst that could happen is that’s nothing.”
Picariello needed a procedure known as Whipple surgery to remove the cancer in his bile duct. It involves temporarily removing part of the patient’s intestines to remove the cancer on the bile duct and clean out the relevant lymph nodes.
The surgery was performed robotically, a method of performing the Whipple procedure that has only become commonplace for this type of cancer in the past five to 10 years, Deutsch said.
The benefits of robotic surgery, which involves the surgeon remotely controlling a robotic machine a few feet away from the patient to do the necessary cutting and cancer removal, include the ability to make smaller incisions, resulting in a less invasive procedure, higher precision, and less scarring, Deutsch said.
In his own practice, he’s also found that patients who have the procedure robotically rather than manually recover faster and are able to leave the hospital sooner, though there have not been definite studies proving this.
Now, roughly two months after the surgery, Picariello said his recovery is going well. He left the hospital a few days after the surgery, returned to his accounting job roughly two weeks later and to recreational swimming about a week later.
For those looking for advice on how to catch cancer early, Deutsch emphasized the importance of routine medical care, like annual physicals that involve routine labs, and being attuned to your body, including making note of any unusual weight loss, pain, fatigue, or changes in appetite.
“The care has been great,” Picariello said of his experience with NYU Langone Long Island. “After the surgery, they would constantly call and check-in. Literally every person I’ve dealt with has been great.”
