Patricio Polanco, M.D. Titles and Appointments Director Of Robotic Surgery Training, Co-Director Pancreatic Cancer Program, Co-Director Pancreatic Cancer Prevention Clinic Professor Endowed Title Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D. Scholar in Clinical Medicine School Medical School Department Surgery You have reached the Academic Profile. For more information on the doctor and patient care, please visit the clinical profile. Biography Patricio Polanco, M.D., is an Associate Professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He is gastrointestinal surgical oncologist with vast expertise in minimally invasive/robotic pancreas and liver surgery. Dr. Polanco serves as the Director of the Robotic Surgery Training Program at UT Southwestern as well as Co-Director for the Pancreatic Cancer Program and the Pancreatic Cancer Prevention Clinic. Dr. Polanco also leads the Peritoneal Surface Malignancies and HIPEC (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy) program at UT Southwestern, NCI-Comprehensive Simmons Cancer Center. A native of Peru, Dr. Polanco graduated as valedictorian of Universidad de San Martin de Porres Medical School. After completing his surgical training in Lima, Peru, he moved to the United States, where he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship and a general surgery residency at the University of Pittsburgh. During his training, Dr. Polanco received several prestigious accolades, including the Alpha Omega Alpha-Honor Medical Society, the Charles C. Moore Teaching Award at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and the Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award. He later pursued a Complex Surgical Oncology Fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. A doubled board-certified surgeon by the American Board of Surgery (General Surgery and Complex General Surgical Oncology), Dr. Polanco joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2014. Dr. Polanco research interests includes health services research, disparities, and surgical outcomes in HPB malignancies and pancreatic cancer. He is also the site principal investigator for several clinical trials for pancreatic cancer. His research has been presented in national and international meetings and has published over 100 peer-reviewed article is several surgical and cancer journals. Dr. Polanco has served in several committees and leadership positions of academic associations including the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, Society of Surgical Oncology, American College of Surgeons, among others. He also serves in the Pancreatic Cancer and the Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma expert panel for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines. Dr. Polanco's commitment to the advancement of medical knowledge extends globally, as he has trained and guided several international surgeons in establishing robotic surgery HPB programs. Furthermore, his extensive experience in medical mission trips to Central and South America highlights his dedication to providing healthcare access to underserved populations. Dr. Polanco was included in D Magazine's Best Doctors list for 2019 to 2023. Education Medical School Universidad de San Martin de Porres (2000) Internship Hospital Nacional Arzobispo Loayza (2001), General Surgery Residency Hospital Nacional Guillermo Almenara I. Essalud (2004), General Surgery Fellowship University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (2007), Post Doctoral Residency University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (2012), Surgery Fellowship University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (2014), Surgical Oncology Publications Comparison of intraoperative and postoperative metrics in robotic vs. laparoscopic liver resections by difficulty – Retrospective cohort analysis of a multi-institutional database Author Collaboration AR, Lee MJ, Ashraf Ganjouei A, Wang J, Love TE, DeCicco J, Ganguli S, Foroutani L, Cadena-Semanate R, Cleary S, Serrano PE, Hogg M, Warner SG, Shah M, Helton S, Alseidi A, Kingham TP, Geller D, Sucandy I, Simo KA, Kamath AS, Polanco PM, Onkendi E, El-Hayek K, Hays S, Mehdi S, Chung C, Wei A, Tohme S, McBrier NM HPB 2026 Jan 28 43-49 Pretreatment CA19-9 Predicts Survival in Pancreatic Cancer With Optimal Response to Neoadjuvant Therapy Gebran A, Chopra A, Farah E, Hays S, Ranson K, Rojas A, Ceuppens S, Schmitz R, Liu H, Tirukkovalur NV, Talamonti M, Lee KK, Zeh HJ, Schmidt C, Boone BA, Hogg M, Zureikat AH, Polanco PM, Paniccia A Journal of Surgical Oncology 2026 Single-cell resolution spatial analysis of antigen-presenting cancer-associated fibroblast niches Chen X, Zhou Z, Xie L, Qiao K, Jia Y, Liu S, Yazgan Z, Rossi F, Liu Y, Zhang B, Polanco PM, Zeh HJ, Kim AC, Huang H Cancer Cell 2025 Dec 43 2224-2240.e9 Macrovascular tumor infiltration and circulating tumor cell cluster dynamics in patients with cancer approaching the end of life Newcomer K, Bifolco A, Reeves S, Pontecorvi G, Asawa S, Sznurkowska MK, Nüesch M, Ozimski LL, Bolm L, Sieren MM, Müller L, Chi Z, Gasper W, Wachsmann MB, Moore W, Zheng X, Fokkema A, Ring A, Nguyen-Sträuli BD, Budinjas S, ten Winkel M, Färber B, Zaki A, Fatimah N, Crecca E, Karalis JD, Chandra R, Prince H, Goff KL, Choi SH, Abousaab C, Zhang S, Cole S, Naumann K, Keck T, Polanco PM, Gvozdenovic A, Krol I, Castro-Giner F, Arteaga C, Zeh HJ, Kloeckner R, Ghersi D, Aceto N, Ligorio M Nature medicine 2025 Dec 31 4140-4149 Comparative analysis of three approaches for minimally invasive incision-dominant hepatectomy: a multi-center analysis of patients undergoing resection of segments VII and VIII in the AMILES registry Author Collaboration AG, Yin H, Ganjouei AA, Wang JJ, Onkendi EO, Sucandy I, Shah M, Helton WS, Kamath A, Polanco PM, Simo K, Iannitti D, Hogg ME, Serrano PE, Geller D, Tohme S, Warner S, Cleary S, Adam MA, Alseidi A, Peng J, Thornblade LW, Maker A, Corvera C, Foroutani L, Elsaadi A, Chung C, Gudmundsdottir H, Hays S, Mehdi S, McBrier N HPB 2025 Dec 27 1583-1589 External validation of Tampa Difficulty Scoring System for robotic liver resection using Americas Minimally Invasive Liver Surgery Registry (AMILES) Al Harakeh H, Ross SB, Milivojev Covilo K, Mendez M, Onkendi E, Shah M, Mavani PT, Polanco P, Martinie J, Iannitti D, Hogg M, Hays S, Mehdi SA, Helton S, Geller D, Simo K, El-Hayek K, Warner S, Gudmundsdottir H, Cleary S, Alseidi A, Tohme S, Castillo S, Vanterpool G, Esposito G, Sucandy I Surgical endoscopy 2025 Dec 39 8524-8531 Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy: A Call to Study Reproductive Safety for Healthcare Workers Author Collaboration PS, Gupta P, Godfrey EL, Schultz KS, Yu LJ, Bansal VV, Gomez-Mayorga J, Papageorge M, Proussaloglou EM, Su DG, Merl MY, Ward E, Sood D, Magge DR, Senthil M, Kopecky KE, Turaga KK, Sarpel U, Woo Y, Gao X, Keutgen X, Morano W, Bowne WB, Nabil W, Strong V, Vudatha V, Gushchin V, Maduekwe U, Blazer T, Grotz T, Nguyen T, Kennedy T, Lwin T, Jaraczewski T, Gamblin TC, Campbell S, Ahrendt S, Greco S, Abdel-Misih S, Radomski S, Concors S, Gholami S, Dineen S, Sherman S, Wilkins S, Daniel S, Bagaria S, Butensky SD, Naffouje S, Polanco P, Kim A Annals of Surgical Oncology 2025 Nov 32 8568-8572 Does a robotic approach decrease morbidity and mortality following pancreaticoduodenectomy for octogenarians? An American multi-center analysis Hays SB, Kuchta K, Abreu AA, Chopra A, Farah E, Kannan A, Mehdi SA, Radi I, Ranson K, Rojas AE, Tcharni A, Boone BA, Paniccia A, Polanco PM, Schmidt CR, Talamonti MS, Zeh HJ, Zureikat AH, Hogg ME HPB 2025 Nov 27 1400-1409 Confirmatory Clinical Validation of a Serum-Based Biomarker Signature for Detection of Early-Stage Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Polanco PM, Gonda T, Borazanci E, Glazer ES, Trevino JG, DeMuth G, Ford L, King T, Palma NA, Brand RE Current Oncology 2025 Nov 32 Postoperative outcomes with minimally invasive minor hepatectomy based on ECOG performance status – analysis of multi-institutional database Author Collaboration AG, Mavani PT, Goyal S, Hogg ME, Kamath AS, Iannitti DA, Simo KA, Helton WS, E. Serrano P, Onkeni EO, Geller DA, Polanco PM, El-Hayek K, Warner SG, Cleary SP, Alseidi A, Zaidi MY, Russell MC, Maegawa F, Nguyen KT, Sarmiento JM, Maithel SK, Kooby DA, Shah MM Surgical endoscopy 2025 Nov 39 7680-7689 Results 1-10 of 186 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Honors & Awards Eugene P Frenkel, M.D. Scholar in Clinical Medicine Award for the project Improving Access to Surgical Care for HepatoPancreatoBiliary Malignancies in North Texas (2022) Best CAPSTONE Project, LEAD Course UT Southwestern Medical Center: Implementation of Video Assessment of Surgical Proficiency to Improve Patients Outcomes (2020) New Investigator Award Grant, VA North Texas Health Care System (2016) Charles C. Moore Teaching Award, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh (2011) Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching (2010) Induction to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Chapter (2009) Valedictorian Class of 2000, Universidad San Martin De Porres (2000) Professional Associations/Affiliations Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (AHPBA) (2014) Association of Academic Surgeons (AAS) (2014) Fellow American College of Surgeons (FACS) (2017) Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) (2018) Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) (2012) Society of University Surgeons (2022)
