Wesley Papenfuss, MD FACS FSSO
Dr. Wesley Papenfuss is a surgical oncologist at the Advocate Health St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Working closely with other cancer specialists including medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, interventional oncologists, pathologists, and gastroenterologists, he creates cancer treatment plans tailored to the needs of patients diagnosed with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma, gastric cancers, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, ovarian cancer, and pancreatic cancer, as well as other malignancies.[1]
Dr. Papenfuss has significant expertise in the use of a complex surgical procedure that combines cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, or HIPEC. He co-founded the HIPEC program at St. Luke’s Medical Center in 2018. St. Luke’s performs over 40 HIPEC procedures per year.[2]
Education and Career
Dr. Papenfuss earned his medical degree at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences. He completed his internship and residency in General Surgery at Iowa Methodist Medical Center and completed a fellowship in Complex General Surgery Oncology at Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester in New York.[3]
Research
Dr. Papenfuss has a special interest in minimally invasive robotic cancer surgery. He has ongoing research projects evaluating oncologic outcomes in robotic cancer surgery.
His most recent publications include:[4]
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is associated with improved outcomes in patients with stage 1A and 1B pancreatic cancer undergoing surgery: An NCDB study. Jun 2022. Noah Rozich, Maharaj Singh, Isaac Kriley[…]Geoffrey Bellini. 4157 Background: The use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has shown clear advantages in locally advanced and borderline resectable disease. The benefit of upfront resectable PDAC is debated. Moreover, in the early clinical stages of IA/IB, potential benefits including improved R0 resection rate, decreased tumor…
A pilot study to reliably measure the tissue concentration of mitomycin C after hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. Feb 2022. Isaac Kriley, Noah Rozich, Geoffrey Bellini[…]Aaron H. Chevinsky. 138 Background: HIPEC with MMC is a treatment for gastrointestinal cancers metastatic to the peritoneal cavity. The pharmacokinetics of MMC in plasma, peritoneal fluid, and urine are described. The amount of MMC in intraabdominal tissues after HIPEC is not well described. The aim of this study is to evaluate if MMC concentrated in tissue samples a…
Gastrointestinal Cancers: Racial and Ethnicity Differences. Preprint. May 2021 Maharaj Singh, Santhi Konduri, Samit Datta[…], James Weese. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine race and ethnicity for overall survival (OS) and percent survival after 5- and 10 years for patients diagnosed with one of the gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Method: We used national data for 12 types of GI cancers (esophagus, stomach, gallbladder, intrahepatic bile duct, extrahepatic bile duct, l…
Comparing survival outcomes for neoadjuvant therapy versus adjuvant therapy in the management of stage 1 pancreatic adenocarcinoma: A National Cancer Database study. Feb 2020. Samit Kumar Datta, Geoffrey Bellini, Maharaj Singh[…], Aaron H. Chevinsky. 664 Background: We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the treatment of stage 1 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) from surgery first followed by adjuvant therapy (AT) to Neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) first followed by surgery and this is reflected in the current NCCN guidelines as well. Data comparing these two modalities are limited. AIM: To…
