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Can radiation be given between finishing chemo and having Whipple?

Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: Jun 21 7:29am | Replies (21)
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@ashley2235

I am a patient of Dr Mark Truty at Mayo, and he definitely is a fan of chemo, then radiation, before surgery. Not sure about Whipple in particular as I had a total pancreatectomy with vascular reconstruction. I did 28 days of radiation along with weekly Gemcitabine infusion. Then had a 4 week washout period before surgery. I was told it was time to let my body heal in preparation for such an extensive surgery. I had complete path response with no evidence of tumor at surgery. I do remember my local radiation oncologist discussing 2 approaches to radiation. One with surgery in the plan, and the other without. I honestly cannot remember which approach I took, but nonetheless, it appeared to work well for me. I am currently 11 months post-op and NED.

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Replies to "I am a patient of Dr Mark Truty at Mayo, and he definitely is a fan..."
marienewland | @mnewland99 | Jun 12 7:51am

ashley2235
That’s very good news regarding NED. Did you have the BRCA2 gene? Sounds like a plan outside of the typical protocol that worked! My niece
Went to same Mayo Clinic for thyroid cancer and it was a complete success for her which is about 10 yrs ago now.

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beckyshops | @beckyshops | Jun 20 9:04am

Hi - I am working through the Mayo clinic in Phoenix and have requested referral to Dr. Truty in Rochester as I have tumor in pancreas head but with a few arteries wrapped >180. Did radiation start while you were still getting Gemcitabine infusions, or was there a break? I had 4 Folfirinox infusions followed by blood test & CT at Mayo Phoenix and it's shown almost no response. ca19-9 stays in the same general range (mid-400s) so they are starting me today on the Gem-abraxine chemo. I'm eager to hear back from Truty's office, but thinking maybe they'll want to wait for a couple cycles of this chemo before evaluating me.
Anyway, just wondering about the chemo-radiation schedule. Thanks and congrats on your progress!!

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