BATON ROUGE — Pancreatic cancer is tough to treat because it is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage.

One key treatment option is the Whipple procedure, a complex surgery with three approaches open, laparoscopic and robotic.

"Surgery is the only potentially curative treatment," Dr. Michael Kendrick, a pancreas surgeon, said.

However, for the best outcome, most patients will need chemotherapy and radiation before surgery to maximize cancer outcomes. Dr. Kendrick says that, after such rigorous treatments prior to surgery, minimally invasive approaches help minimize the effect on the patient's health.

"It's much less stress on the body than the open approach, and so most of the studies show that patients have less pain, quicker recovery, less blood loss and shorter hospital stays, which has been very beneficial," Dr. Kendrick said.

Laparoscopic, he says, means making small incisions and using a camera and special instruments that traverse the abdominal wall to perform the operation internally.

"So the surgeon's right at the bedside, holding and controlling all of these instruments," he said.

After the operation, the patient wakes up with bandages rather than a large incision.

These small incisions mean less pain from the operation and quicker healing time.

"The minimally invasive approach is allowing people to recover quicker, which gives them more hope that after all of the treatment they've gone through — the chemotherapy, the radiation, now the surgery — that finally they're going to get some of their life back. And I think that's really rewarding," he said.