For Periampullary Carcinoma Of Pancreas/Whipple's Resection

Hi,
My father Brian - age 57, has been diagnosed with Periampullary carcinoma of the pancreas. He underwent a Whipple's resection on the 18th of July about a week after that he had a burst abdomen and and had to go back for surgery and was in hospital till the 2nd of August. On the 22nd of August he started his chemotherapy.
He is on 5FU, Leucovorin and Dexamethasone for the nausea.
If anyone can help me out - is that after the Whipples resection he has lost about 10kgs in weight and had just returned to eating semi-solid food-like poridges for the 3 meals with a fruit between each, but after his chemo started his nauseau is quite bad. As a result he is unable to retain very much and has reduced his eating. He vomits to about 10-15 times a day. Anyone who has undergone this can you please let me know if you had a similar experience and how did you cope with them.

His cancer is staged at T2NOMX - Stage 1A. His chemotherapy treatment is a 5day treatment every 3 weeks, totalling to 6 treatments over a span of 6 months.Since not much information is available on this type of cancer - can anyone tell me from experience if the number of treatments can be reduced to about 4 - 5 day treatments. As some doctors say chemotherapy is not required for this type of cancer - and after the first set of treatments, my dad is not taking it well and looking at this option.
Can anyone tell me if this has been done in their experience.
Thank you and looking forward to any sort of encouragement..

Regards,
Marianne.

Hello Marianne,

I just saw your note regarding your father's treatment. I hope your father is feeling well now. My mother also underwent Whipple surgery last year. She was given chemotherapy with Gemcite. She had to take 6 rounds of chemo. But the results didn't come out good so she is again put on chemotherapy with a differnt drug this time. We are awaiting the results. She also feels very nauseatic and lost weight and is very week because of less intake of food.

How is your father now? I hope he is well. You can call me anytime if you want to talk or have any questions. --- Message edited by CancerCompass staff: for personal protection, phone number removed. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html ----

Best wishes,
Pranay