I had 8 cycles of FOLFIRINOX and then was pushed by my Whipple surgeon to get radiation. My surgeon was at the Mayo, but I was doing the chemo at Stanford. The original radiation plan proposed by Stanford could have caused future complications down the road with problems like bowl obstructions. I found that they were recommending a radiation plan that they use as typical for 90% of the pancreatic cancer patients. But most of those patients do not qualify for Whipple surgery and so the radiation plan was more aggressive. In the end the Mayo advised the Stanford radiation oncologist on a less aggressive radiation plan which I underwent.

A different doctor friend of mine was speculating—and this is just speculation—that the surgeon wanted the radiation because it firmed up the tissue of the pancreas making it easier to work with for the Whipple.