Looking For Help

I'm new to the board. My 67 yr. old father was diagnosed with Stage IV, locally advanced, resectable pc in early Jan. 06. He presented mid Dec. with painless jaundice. He had a Whipple on Feb. 1, 2006. At the time of surgery, his doctor told us that the cancer was close to the portal-vein which made it unresectable, but since they were committed to the surgery, that had to proceed and remove parts of the tumor that they could. They left about 10%. His recovery was a little tough, but my dad is a fighter, and left the hospital in 15 days! The cancer has spread to some of the nearby lymph-nodes. To date my dad has started radiation in conjuction with chemotherapy thru a pic line (5FU). He is in his 5th and final week of treatment. So far, he hasn't had too many side effects other than fatigue. He now has diabeties and takes insulin injections. I have started looking for more advanced treatment options becuase we were told during surgery that the "Best case scenario" would be a year. We are so worried about wasting precious time. Has anyone heard anything about the Cancer Treatment Centers of America? Also, any new chemo or radiation treatments. My prayers are with all who are suffering through this.

Veronica in CA.

Sorry about your father. I have lost 2 uncles to this disease. The recent news in PC is the effectiveness of Gemzar alone or in combination with Tarceva. This has increased survival in clinical trials. I would look into clinical trials, using the NCI site or a general search for clinical trials in PC. Stage 4 disease is not cureable and the goal is to add time.

Thanks for the information. We will be meeting w/my dad's doctors this week. I will surely ask them about these two medications. Did your uncles ever take a growth inhibitor? I have been doing some research on this.

Veronica

Hello Veronica,

I just would like to check with you how is your father doing, do you have any new treatment for him?
You and your father are in my prayers.
Janet.

Hi Janet,

Thank your for your reply. My dad just finished his first round on treatments on Friday. He seems to be feeling pretty good. My husband and I spend a considerable amount of time with him, and notice any little changes. He really has done well on the "outside". We are now waiting for a month to let his system calm down before he goes back in for bloodwork and scans. We have already been informed that he will likely have to have more chemo therapy which will be alot more intense. We are doing alot of research right now to see what type of new therapies are out. He was being considered for a clinical trial in S.F., but he became ineligable because he started chemo/radiation. They wanted people who had not had any treatments yet. So for now we are just so happy he pain free and in good spirits. It is pretty hard to keep spirits up, and wait for things to turn to the inevitable. Making everything balance out is difficult. Thank you so much for your thoughts. You'll never know how healing it is to speak with people going through the same trials.

Veronica in CA.