Has anyone been able to have surgery for tumor in the tail?

Posted by vlny2018 @vlny2018, Jul 3 12:08pm

Has anyone been able to have surgery for tumor in the tail of the pancreas, stage 4, metastasized to the lymph nodes. My husband's oncologist says that sugery isn't an option ever for him. Just chemo every two weeks until folfirinox doesn't work or becomes too toxic. Then some other chemo mix, then … Is this true? This is so discouraging. If the tumors shrink, can't they do more? My husband has had the cancer go into his lymph nodes close to his kidney and the pressure was closing the tube connecting to his bladder, and now has a stint in place to keep kidney function, which it has done.

We have an appointment with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in August. My husband just had his 4th treatment and will be having a PET scan the end of July. Other than this, he has been extremely healthy, no bad habits, exercises everyday, and eats clean. This is just a huge punch in the gut, as I'm sure is everyone's experience.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Pancreatic Cancer Support Group.

Have you considered going back on GC and adding abraxane? Abraxane is the really powerful one that eliminated 1 of my liver lesions and shrunk the other lesion that was 1.7 cm to 0.9cm and then I got MRIdean radiation on it to hopefully decimate it (I’ll know by early December when I meet with the radiation specialist). My marker (CA19-9) is in normal range down, but I will stay on chemo GA (I don’t have the BRCA gene, but have the ATM, KRAS12D, and TP53) forever until it stops working. Cisplatin effective for BRCA and PALB genes. There is also a clinical trial out there RM6236 and RM9805 that is showing some positive results so you might ask your oncologist if you might be a candidate. Best wishes on your journey; just realize it can be a bumpy road!

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@mnewland99

Have you considered going back on GC and adding abraxane? Abraxane is the really powerful one that eliminated 1 of my liver lesions and shrunk the other lesion that was 1.7 cm to 0.9cm and then I got MRIdean radiation on it to hopefully decimate it (I’ll know by early December when I meet with the radiation specialist). My marker (CA19-9) is in normal range down, but I will stay on chemo GA (I don’t have the BRCA gene, but have the ATM, KRAS12D, and TP53) forever until it stops working. Cisplatin effective for BRCA and PALB genes. There is also a clinical trial out there RM6236 and RM9805 that is showing some positive results so you might ask your oncologist if you might be a candidate. Best wishes on your journey; just realize it can be a bumpy road!

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We received good news on the PET. We're contacting another trial today at Huntsman in Salt Lake City to see what they can offer and to see other options with this new information. Thank you for your information, we will include it in our conversation.

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@vlny2018

We received good news on the PET. We're contacting another trial today at Huntsman in Salt Lake City to see what they can offer and to see other options with this new information. Thank you for your information, we will include it in our conversation.

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That’s great!

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