Close relative diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

[madoka]

I found out last night that my Uncle was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In hindsight, he had all the symptoms: rapid weight loss, diarrhea, loss of appetite, etc. But we thought it was all from a recent kidney stone operation he had.

I do not know how advanced his condition is.

I feel powerless and want to know what can be done in his situation. Is this just a death sentence or can he fight it?

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Sadly, Pancreatic cancer has a very poor prognosis, even with early detection.

My good friends Aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was gone in under 2 months.

Seemingly perfectly healthy to gone in a flash.

It all depends on how far along the cancer is. But even then we're talking like a 10% survival rate to 20%.

 

[Strk]

Sadly, with pancreatic cancer, the symptoms usually don't show up until the the cancer has spread quite a bit and the person has actually been living with it for quite a while. You really need to ask him or anyone close to him how far along it is.

 

[Mayne]

Sorry for your bad news. Not a good cancer to get.

 

[olds]

Sadly, it's a death sentence.
Runs in my wife's family. She gets screened yearly as she is part of some pancreatic cancer study.

 

[Exterous]

Is this just a death sentence or can he fight it?

That is a tough call and depends on how far it has spread. Even with treatment it may just be about spending more time with the family than a 'cure'. My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just over two years ago and is doing well...kinda. The chemo and radiation were tough - they hit pancreatic cancer as hard as possible so there are side effects beyond the treatment. Even 2 years after the treatment my dad still has very low white blood cell counts so minor infections usually lead to a stay at a hospital just to be sure. During treatment he couldn't get his own items out of the refrigerator as the temperatures could damage his hands. We cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms 3x a day while they stayed with us during treatment etc etc.

All those issues aside (and many many more) was the treatment worth it? I can't answer for someone else's situation but for ours: Abso-fucking-lutely. I have gotten to spend a lot of quality time with my father. He has been healthy enough to take several trips with my mother and has gotten to see his grandkids get that much older

The specter is always there though. An anomalous image on an MRI, increase in certain blood indicators always make you wonder and fear. Its not something that appears it will ever go away and that can be very hard at times. It is not an easy road whatever happens.

I wish you and your family the best of luck during these hard times and hope you are able to provide the strength and love to eachother necessary to deal with whatever comes

It all depends on how far along the cancer is. But even then we're talking like a 10% survival rate to 20%.

To be brutally honest its not even that high. 20% after 1 year and 6% after 5 years

 

[WilliamM2]

My wife's step-dad was diagnosed with it in Jan. 2010, stage 4, and we were told 2-3 months tops. Somehow it seemed to go into complete remission with treatment, which is unheard of. Problem is, cancer started showing up everywhere within 2 years. We lost him Yesterday.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

That was what did my mom in. It's one of the worse ones.

@OP: Even if you beat the odds, it's going to be a rough ride. Best of luck.

 

[BeeBoop]

Here's an option your uncle might want to talk his doctor about.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150128081957.htm

 

[Megatomic]

My wife is a survivor of pancreatic cancer. She had most of the organ (and the spleen) removed back in 2008 and is still cancer free. So just remember that it's not necessarily a death sentence. Good luck to your family.

 

[Brainonska511]

What a bummer, I'm sorry to hear that. If he can get treatment, it could extend his time. But I know how you feel. 2 year ago this March, I lost my uncle to advanced colon cancer (he waited way too long to get checked out, and by that point, it was too late). The most you can do though is be there for your family and your uncle.

Here's an option your uncle might want to talk his doctor about.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150128081957.htm

I don't think that's really an option that's currently on the table, it's more of a proof of concept for avenues of future drug development.

 

[BeeBoop]

I disagree especially from reading what others have said in this thread. The survival rate is only 20% after the first year from standard care like chemo and the side affects are horrendous. Antibiotics are already in use so there is no need to develop new drugs, only the dosage amount would have to change. From my understanding, you only need a few weeks to determine if the antibiotics are working.

If my life was on the line, I'd push for this as my first option before going through standard care.

 

[Brainonska511]

I disagree especially from reading what others have said in this thread. The survival rate is only 20% after the first year from standard care like chemo and the side affects are horrendous. Antibiotics are already in use so there is no need to develop new drugs, only the dosage amount would have to change. From my understanding, you only need a few weeks to determine if the antibiotics are working.

If my life was on the line, I'd push for this as my first option before going through standard care.

I'm not discrediting the method, but the study in question was only looking at cells in vitro. That doesn't necessarily translate to something that will work in vivo. A proper comparison will have to be made to compare the 'standard' treatment versus a re-purposed antibiotic treatment

 

[BeeBoop]

Could he just take some antibiotics for a few weeks and get a test done to see if it's working? If it's not working by week three, then you can blast him with the radiation.

 

[Jadow]

pancreatic cancer killed my gramps. It's one of the worst cancers to get. Sorry to hear about this bro.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Could he just take some antibiotics for a few weeks and get a test done to see if it's working? If it's not working by week three, then you can blast him with the radiation.

I actually can't tell if you're trolling or not.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Sorry to hear that OP, best of luck to him and your family.

My stepfather had prostate cancer and had success with some new drug. Unfortunately he had other health issues, but the drug actually basically was exceptional at limiting his PSA levels for the ~1.5-2 years he took it (and they'd had a lot of success in clinical trials, but it's expensive, he had to get a special grant from Johnson & Johnson where they covered the $9000 a month cost of it) and helped prevent him from needing more drastic treatment (chemo or something like bone marrow transplant). Not sure if it would help your uncle or not though.

 

[OverVolt]

YOLO

 

[mrrman]

sorry to hear this

 

[Zeze]

I'm very sorry.

Fvck cancer. Fvcking fvck cancer. I've lost too many due to fvcking cancer.

 

[brainhulk]

My coworker passed away recently from it. Diagnosed in January and passed away in december. It spread to his lungs and it spiralled downhill fairly quickly from there.

 

[DrPizza]

The reason mortality is so great for pancreatic cancer is that the original cancer itself is asymptomatic. Maybe a little bit of a feeling that something's not quite right, but that's about it. It's usually diagnosed after it has started metastasizing. That is, it's diagnosed after it starts spreading to other organs. At that stage, operating is pointless as there's no way to remove all of the cancerous cells. If diagnosed before it metastasizes, then it's operable (Megatomic's wife, above, survived by having the pancreas removed, along with the spleen). This answers a frequent question, "why can't they just remove the pancreas, and you live like a diabetic and need insulin shots." Unless I'm mistaken, Steve Jobs' pancreatic cancer was discovered in time that surgery would likely have been successful. However, he chose an alternate route.

OP, you have my best wishes. William, sorry to hear about your wife's step-dad.

 

[Ban Bot]

I am so sorry to hear this. I hope he is in the fortunate 6% group 5 years from now.

 

[madoka]

Thanks people!

I would like to think he could beat this. He's in his early 60s and was a former athlete. He's always been in real good physical condition, but after the kidney stone operation, he just wasted away. Again, we thought it was all due to that and I was pretty surprised at how much a toll that operation took on his body. It's been going on for almost a year now and I'm also surprised that doctors didn't find the cancer when he was being treated for the kidney stones.