What is the best treatment to receive for pancreatic cancer? (pain, pancreas)
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My dad has a mass on the tail of the pancreas and it might be cancer. The doctor suggested him to get laprascoptic surgery or just the chemo alone. There are also some spots on the liver.
Find the best oncologist in your area and follow that doctor's suggestions. Take a look at the information at the John Hopkins web page and log onto their discussion group. Ask questions. There are a lot of us who are willing to answer.
Usually it starts with the whipple procedure where they operate on the pancreas.
That being said it is a combination of radiation and chemo. But physicians can offer the best advice and course of treatment. It will be a long painful heartbreaking trip.
Pancreatic cancer is always severe; no such thing as minor. My husband was one of the lucky ones - his was 1B and he was able to have the Whipple procedure before chemo and radiation. From what I have seen, this is not the norm.
The Whipple is one of the most complicated surgeries there is. Major rearrangement of internal organs. The incision starts below the breast bone and goes to the belly button. After surgery - multiple drainage tubes and a feeding tube. DON'T TAKE THIS LIGHTLY! There can be post surgery complications with fluid, weight loss and infections. My husband went from 209 lbs to 143. He is just now completing his chemo. By the way, the chemo will also cause problems. We were told up front that the only good thing about the chemo is that it kills the cancer cells before it kills the patient.
There is no return to 'normal'; only the creation of a new 'normal'. Trust me, this is nothing to play around with.
Pancreatic cancer is called the silent killer. Usually someone is at stage 3 or 4 before any symptoms appear. What stage is your father at?
Even with early detection two years is about the extent. Often the treatment at first will show progress, then the cancer makes a comeback and treatment becomes ineffective.
Why? Not sure why. If we did we could come up with better treatments and improve life and survival. there are exceptions, they are rare.
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Been there
