Gaetano Ciancio is an Italian American surgeon at the University of Miami who specializes in kidney transplant. He is the chief medical and academic officer of the Miami Transplant Institute and the director of its Kidney & Kidney-Pancreas Programs.[1] His most significant contributions to medicine are related to surgically treating kidney cancer once it has spread to the inferior vena cava[2][3] and in optimizing the immunosuppression protocol after kidney transplant.[4]
Ciancio developed techniques for the surgical resection of large kidney tumors.[6] His results demonstrated that by performing a liver mobilization, urological oncologists could avoid a thoracic incision in many patients [7]
Inferior vena cava thrombectomy
Building on the techniques described for resecting large renal tumors, Ciancio adapted his liver mobilization technique to address retrohepatic or even suprahepatic inferior vena caval thrombus associated with renal tumors.[3]
Together with his long time collaborator Mark Soloway, they published a step-by-step guide toward resecting renal cell carcinoma with associated inferior vena cava thrombus.[8]
Immunosuppression
Ciancio helped develop and popularize alternative immunosuppression regimens which successfully lowered the dose of immunosuppressants without increasing organ rejection.[9][10][11]
Reconstruction during kidney transplantation
During kidney transplantation, the most common arterial reconstruction is for a single renal artery to be anastomosed to the external iliac artery.[12][13] Ciancio has popularized several techniques for dealing with anatomical variations, including the usage of the inferior epigastric artery to anastomose to a small upper-pole artery.[14]
Additionally, Ciancio has been part of the Miami Transplant Team that developed the bladder patch technique, where for various indications the kidney together with the ureter and some amount of donor bladder are transplanted en-bloc.[15]
Pancreatic transplantation
Together with George Burke, Ciancio has made contributions to the field of pancreas transplantations both regarding management of surgical complications and immunosuppression strategies, including publishing a technique for thrombectomy for complete venous thrombosis of the transplanted pancreas.[16]
He is an author or co-author of two books, 30 book chapters, and over 388 peer-reviewed articles published in medical journals for topics involving the field of solid organ transplantation and urologic oncology.[19]
^Ciancio, Gaetano; Vaidya, Anil; Savoie, Mark; Soloway, Mark (2002). "Management of Renal Cell Carcinoma With Level III Thrombus in the Inferior Vena Cava". Journal of Urology. 168 (4 Part 1). Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health): 1374–1377. doi:10.1016/s0022-5347(05)64452-7. ISSN0022-5347. PMID12352396.
^ abCiancio, Gaetano; Livingstone, Alan S.; Soloway, Mark (2007). "Surgical Management of Renal Cell Carcinoma with Tumor Thrombus in the Renal and Inferior Vena Cava: The University of Miami Experience in Using Liver Transplantation Techniques". European Urology. 51 (4). Elsevier BV: 988–995. doi:10.1016/j.eururo.2006.11.055. ISSN0302-2838. PMID17175095.
^Ciancio, Gaetano; Manoharan, Murugesan; Katkoori, Devendar; De Los Santos, Rosely; Soloway, Mark S. (2010). "Long-term Survival in Patients Undergoing Radical Nephrectomy and Inferior Vena Cava Thrombectomy: Single-Center Experience". European Urology. 57 (4). Elsevier BV: 667–672. doi:10.1016/j.eururo.2009.06.009. ISSN0302-2838. PMID19560258.
^Ciancio, Gaetano; Gonzalez, Javier; Shirodkar, Samir P.; Angulo, Javier C.; Soloway, Mark S. (2011). "Liver Transplantation Techniques for the Surgical Management of Renal Cell Carcinoma with Tumor Thrombus in the Inferior Vena Cava: Step-by-Step Description". European Urology. 59 (3). Elsevier BV: 401–406. doi:10.1016/j.eururo.2010.07.028. ISSN0302-2838. PMID20724064.
^Benoit G (1996). "[Surgical technics of kidney transplantation]". Prog Urol (in French). 6 (4): 594–604. PMID8924941.
^Coen, L. D.; Raftery, A. T. (1992). "Anatomical variations of the renal arteries and renal transplantation". Clinical Anatomy. 5 (6). Wiley: 425–432. doi:10.1002/ca.980050602. ISSN0897-3806. S2CID74028141.
^Moon, Jang IL; Ciancio, Gaetano; Burke, George W (2005). "Arterial reconstruction with donor iliac vessels during pancreas transplantation: an intraoperative approach to arterial injury or inadequate flow". Clinical Transplantation. 19 (2). Wiley: 286–290. doi:10.1111/j.1399-0012.2005.00339.x. ISSN0902-0063. PMID15740569. S2CID25431215.