Hello folks, I'd like to share my Mom's story as I believe she may be one of the record-setters for this disease. In 1998, yes 1998 she had the whipple done because she had bile duct cancer, basically it was wrapped around the bile duct, but no cancer anywhere else. She came thru fine at 71 years old. No chemo, or radiation after it at all!! She is also a diabetic! Last year, in 2005 she turned yellow very quickly with pain etc and they found another NEW tumor inside the little bit of bile duct she had left. They stented, twice, the second a more permanet stent I guess and gave her five weeks of radiation. In May of this year, a year after the stent and radiation was done, they could no longer detect the tumor inside the bile duct. But now she is 79 years old and for the past several months has had tremendouse back pain and difficulty eating, lots of vomiting and nausea. They discovered that now she has another tumor outside the bile duct. But her liver, pancreas etc are all clear of any cancer. Unfortunately the failure to eat has left her in a greatly weakened state now and tomorrow they will have to place a feeding tube in. They tell us if they can just get her strength up by feeding her this way they will treat this tumor with chemotherapy (3 kinds, I forget the name but it includes Avastin) It's been a really long journey and when I read these posts here, I feel really blessed at my mother's longevity with this disease. Does anyone know why this is causing such excruciating back pain, that is really her worse symptom. She is not jaundice at this time but just can't see to get food down and keep it down.