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 Schools Medical School Departments 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 a 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 Hepatic embolization for Cushing syndrome from metastatic tumors: a single-center case series Zhang S, Mosquera Izurieta JE, Musonza C, Pillai AK, Abramowitz J, Mirfakhraee S, Polanco PM, Al Mutar S, Arafat W, Hamidi O Journal of the Endocrine Society 2026 Apr 10 Cognitive Training for Performance Enhancement in Robotic Surgery: A Systematic Review of RCTs Castillo-Flores S, Abreu AA, Viana P, Mora MM, Faria I, Polanco PM Journal of Surgical Education 2026 Apr 83 PancreaSeq Genomic Classifier (PancreaSeq GC) Improves Pancreatic Cyst Classification and Detection of Advanced Neoplasia: A Multi-institutional Validation Study Singhi AD, Wald AI, Smith K, Wolkenstein L, Bubar RD, Diaz-Aragon R, Grupillo M, Guckin D, Lai YT, Brand RE, McGrath K, Park WG, Pfau PR, Polanco PM, Kubiliun N, DeWitt J, Easler JJ, Dam A, Mok SR, Wallace MB, Boone BA, Marsh W, Thakkar S, Fairley KJ, Afghani E, Bhat Y, Ramrakhiani S, Nasr J, Thiruvengadam NR, Khalid A, Fasanella K, Chennat J, Das R, Singh H, Slivka A, Gabbert C, Sawas T, Tielleman T, Vanderveldt HD, Tavakkoli A, Smith LM, Singhi AH, Singhi SA, Romutis S, Mahmood S, Hosmer AE, McNabb-Baltar J, Lennon AM, Hruban RH, Shaker N, Paniccia A, Zureikat A, Lee KK, Ongchin M, Zeh H, Minter R, Schmidt CM, He J, Nikiforova MN Annals of Surgical Oncology 2026 Apr 33 2865-2875 Characterizing Biological Behavior Beyond Morphologic Features: Next-Generation Sequencing Analysis of Large vs Small Pancreatic Cystic Lesions in a Large Multicenter Cohort of Patients Author Collaboration PC, Kannan A, Murimwa GZ, Mansour JC, Whitham ZA, Zeh HJ, Kubiliun NM, Singhi AD, Polanco PM Journal of the American College of Surgeons 2026 Mar 242 539-548 A Case Series of Peritoneal Mesothelioma in Pediatric Patients Merritt A, Ludwig K, Polanco PM, Sengupta AL, Sadanand A Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology 2026 Mar 48 e105-e108 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 Feb 133 177-185 The São Paulo International Consensus on Minimally Invasive Pancreatic Surgery for Cancer Tustumi F, Calthorpe L, Fotoohi N, Ribeiro TC, Stolzemburg LC, Bettiati Junior AL, Gonçalves Cd, de Almeida AP, Giordano AM, de Godoy AL, Altenfelder D, Nicioli J, Guimarães AC, Requejo AS, Diniz AL, Oliveira AF, Wei AC, de Moricz A, Montagnini AL, Visser BC, Chan CH, de Oliveira CV, Ferrone CR, Asbun D, Jonas E, Ramos EJ, Nickel F, Maia FK, Apodaca-Torrez FR, Barreto SG, Hewitt DB, de Farias IC, Frigerio I, Jang JY, Anghinoni M, Boff MF, Belotto M, Giménez ME, Nakamura M, Katz MH, Hogg ME, Kendrick ML, Luyer MD, Abu Hilal M, Ikoma N, Zyromski NJ, Jarufe N, Guevara OA, Mazza O, Polanco PM, Amaral PC, Pinheiro RN, Jeyarajah DR, Gaujoux S, Shrikhande SV, Torres SM, Siriwardena AK, Kent TS, Hackert T, Pawlik TM, Andraus W, Boggi U, Asbun HJ, Alseidi A, Coimbra FJ HPB 2026 Feb 28 105-118 Comparative effectiveness of two simulation-based mastery learning robotic curricula in surgical education: a six-year experience Nunez-Rocha RE, Castillo-Flores S, Palacios SG, Abreu AA, Ramírez R, Guzzetta AA, Scott DJ, Sankaranarayanan G, Zeh HJ, Polanco PM Surgical endoscopy 2026 Jan 40 637-645 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 Association of Neighborhood Social Vulnerability With Metastatic Cancer at Diagnosis Khan MS, Leonard T, Young S, Williams N, Meier J, Murimwa GZ, Zeh HJ, Polanco PM Cancer Medicine 2026 Jan 15 Results 1-10 of 192 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)
