On 2/4/2008
alrac62 wrote:
Hi. I wonder if anybody has knowlege or experience with acinar cell carcinoma of the pancreas. Treatments, specialists in Southern California, any info would be helpful. We are in the earliest stages of the diagnosis and will next be seeing an oncologist at City of Hope.
Thanks.
My husband, age 64, was diagnosed with acinar cell pc in April 2006. He was originally treated with Gemzar and Tarceva. This treatment did nothing. Then he was treated with Xeloda and Thalidomide which shrunk the tumor enough to have radiation therapy along with xeloda. He had a nine month break after this (the tumor shrunk even more) and then the beast started to grow again. They started him on folfox (a combination of drugs) and after one cycle of treatment, the tumor is shrinking again. He has just begun another cycle. This does hit his white count and platelets pretty hard so he is having treatment every three weeks instead of two and having a shot once in a while to boost his white count. He has had no mets to the liver or lungs but involvement around the blood vessels so surgery was never an option. I am sure you have lots of questions and my husband and I would be happy to answer them. I can e mail you privately and give you my phone number if you want to contact us. We would be more than happy to talk to you. Stay in faith and believe that you can survive for a long time. We are enjoying every minute we have together. My husband retired last June. We hope to golf this summer and are planning a two week vacation next month. Good luck to you. Hope to hear from you soon.