Dr Kaye Bowers and Bree Todorovic - Wednesday, 28 August 2024 at 7.30 pm

Dr Kaye Bowers, General Surgeon, Hepatobiliary/Pancreatic Surgeon, Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeon

Ms Bree Todorovic, Cabrini Senior Dietician

Fuelling recovery: nutritional considerations in pancreatic cancer surgery.

Learning outcomes

• Identify the patient at risk of malnutrition and the underlying cause(s) in a patient undergoing pancreatic cancer surgery
• Understand the impact of perioperative nutrition on surgical outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients
• Discuss practical approaches to implement nutritional interventions in the perioperative period for pancreatic cancer patients

Biography

Dr Kaye Bowers is a general, liver and pancreatic surgeon at Cabrini and The Alfred. Dr Bowers’ areas of expertise include hernia, gallbladder, liver and pancreas surgery. She has a special interest in advanced laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery to treat liver tumours.

Dr Bowers obtained her General Surgical Fellowship in 2007, having trained at The Alfred Hospital. Following her Fellowship, she undertook specialist Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgical Training with the Liver Transplant and HPB Surgical Unit at the Austin and The London Hospital HPB Unit in the UK.

Dr Bowers is an executive board member of the Australian and New Zealand Hepatic, Pancreatic and Biliary Association (AHPBA) and a Senior Lecturer in Surgery at Monash University.

Biography

Ms Bree Todorovic is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and member of the Dietitians Association of Australia. She completed an undergraduate in Food Science and Nutrition with Honours where she conducted a randomised controlled trial looking into the effects of protein supplementation on wound healing, published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition. She then went on to complete a Masters of Dietetics, both degrees from Deakin University.

Ms Todorovic is a Clinical Dietitian who has worked in the healthcare industry for over a decade mostly in oncology. She has coordinated statewide cancer projects such as the Malnutrition in Oncology Point Prevalence study through Cabrini, Peter Mac and the Department of Health.

As a Dietitian, Ms Todorovic has a passion for improving the health of people through all stages of their cancer journey. She hopes to motivate people to make healthy diet choices to assist in preventing cancer recurrence.