Andrew M. Lowy

Andrew M. Lowy, MD is Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Co-Director of the UCSD Pancreatic Cancer Program at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, where he also serves as Professor of Surgery. He is among the most accomplished surgical oncologists specializing in pancreatic cancer in North America, with expertise spanning complex surgical resection, regional therapy, and the integration of systemic and surgical approaches to improve outcomes in resectable, borderline resectable, and locally advanced PDAC. Dr. Lowy has championed hepatic artery infusion (HAI) pump therapy as a strategy to control hepatic metastases in PDAC patients — a regional intra-arterial chemotherapy delivery approach that achieves high intrahepatic drug concentrations with reduced systemic toxicity. He has led clinical programs at UCSD investigating the combination of HAI with systemic chemotherapy for PDAC liver metastases, seeking to convert unresectable hepatic disease to resectability or achieve durable hepatic control in patients otherwise limited to systemic palliative therapy. Dr. Lowy has also been a major contributor to the field of neoadjuvant therapy for borderline resectable PDAC, conducting studies evaluating gemcitabine-based and FOLFIRINOX-based neoadjuvant regimens and their impact on surgical margin status (R0 resection rates) and survival. His laboratory research has focused on the molecular biology of PDAC, particularly KRAS oncogene signaling and the mechanisms by which KRAS drives PDAC initiation and progression. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and is recognized nationally for training surgical oncology fellows who go on to academic cancer surgery careers.