About Dr. Papenfuss
Wesley Papenfuss, MD, FACS, FSSO
Dr. Papenfuss is a fellowship-trained surgical oncologist who treats cancers of the pancreas, liver, bile ducts, stomach and esophagus, as well as sarcoma and cancers that have spread to the lining of the abdomen. He practices at Advocate Health St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee, a high-volume referral center for complex hepatobiliary disease.
He completed fellowship training in Complex General Surgical Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, and is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in both Complex General Surgical Oncology and General Surgery. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and a Fellow of the Society of Surgical Oncology (FSSO).
Leadership roles include Chief of Surgery at St. Luke's Medical Center, Medical Director of Surgical Oncology, Program Director of the Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship, and cancer service line leader for Advocate Health. He co-founded the St. Luke's HIPEC program in 2018, which now performs more than 40 procedures a year.
His clinical focus is hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) cancer. He is a high-volume robotic surgeon who performs the Whipple operation, distal pancreatectomy, liver resection, gastrectomy and esophagectomy using minimally invasive techniques, and he serves as a robotic surgery proctor for Intuitive Surgical. In 2026 he began offering histotripsy, a non-invasive focused-ultrasound treatment for liver tumors, as part of a combined HPB program with Advocate Health's transplant surgeons. Every liver patient is reviewed at a joint conference of surgical oncologists, transplant surgeons, hepatologists, medical and radiation oncologists, and interventional radiologists.
Dr. Papenfuss maintains an active research program in robotic cancer surgery outcomes and bile duct cancer. To schedule a consultation or second opinion, call 414-649-3240.
