Does anyone here have experience with pancreatic cancer or access to an oncologist?
Re: Experience with Pancreatic Cancer
my colleague's dad was diagnosed with it , he was diagnosed in Nov 13 and passed away in May 14. He did go through chemo but that didn't help much.
Unfortunately pancreatic is almost always diagnosed in last stage and is the most silent cancer and show no signs & symptoms in earlier stage.
Re: Experience with Pancreatic Cancer
thank you.
that is pretty much accurate for all the cases that I've read about. 4-6 months post-diagnosis.
so your colleague's dad did not undergo any surgical procedure to remove any tumor(s)?
Re: Experience with Pancreatic Cancer
no he didn't and as far as I know surgery was not suggested by the dr. Only the chemo and that too was stopped I believe in April.
Re: Experience with Pancreatic Cancer
Does anyone here have experience with pancreatic cancer or access to an oncologist?
I dont have personal experience with it muzna but have dealt with it at work on many occasions (from Dx to death). I also do know several oncologists affiliated with my hospital but again don't have a personal/social relationship with them
Re: Experience with Pancreatic Cancer
Usually diagnosed late, no good diagnostic markers to pick it up early. If it is incidentally picked up early, it's because someone ordered a CT or MRI of the abdomen for another reason and found a mass in the pancreas that is isolated to the pancreas. In that case, yes surgery is possible, and it does get done in many medical centers across North America.
Go to a tertiary care center for pancreatic cancer care, and find out if there are any experimental protocols around that you can be referred to. It's a deadly poorly understood disease, and unfortunately we do not have anything that can pick it up early (i.e. like a lab test).
5-year mortality is pretty high.
Re: Experience with Pancreatic Cancer
I know two people who have passed away because of it. It truly was the ‘silent disease’ in both their cases as it was detected very late.
Access to an oncologist? Depends what country you’re in. Here in the UK you’d need to go through your GP or you could see an oncologist privately.
Re: Experience with Pancreatic Cancer
thank you. that is pretty much accurate for all the cases that I've read about. 4-6 months post-diagnosis. so your colleague's dad did not undergo any surgical procedure to remove any tumor(s)?
Not necessarily, father of one of my colleagues was diagnosed, had surgery and chemotherapy, then relapsed after a year, they decided not to have any further treatment, he survived another year after that without any specific treatment.
Where is the person? One of the leading experts in pancreatic cancer in US is a Pakistani physician. Let me know if u want to know more.