Pancreatic Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others

@fdh Hi and welcome to Mayo Connect. How was your cancer diagnosed? Do you know specifically what type of pancreatic cancer you have? Do you know if it has spread? The cost to get treated at Mayo is determined by many variables around testing and treatment. They can change frequently. Let's start with some basics and go from there ok?

If I’m not mistaken, your doctor has to refer you to Mayo , then there’s an application process, after that there is some type of review board and they will decide whether they will take the case. Now this was about 5 to 10 years ago so things tonight it might’ve changed. Sorry to hear about your diagnosis you will be in my thoughts and prayers

@fdh Here is the link with information on international appointments:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/international/appointment-process
Please let me know if there link works.

@fdh your wait to see anyone is not acceptable in Canada . There are standards to uphold . Perhaps you need to contact your family doctor to get in touch with a team that will get the ball rolling . In Ontario n that is the Hepatic team who operate (no pun intended) out of St Joes in Toronto . They will investigate the possibility of surgery and from there initiate the oncology follow up in your own area after surgery. The time frame here should be fairly rapid -like post op biopsy results and within the next two weeks we were sitting in the Oncology consult and speedy treatment and scans set up from
That point on . Speak with your family doctor and push if necessary

@fdh
Hi, you diagnosis sounds just like mine. I to was diagnosed in Sept. 2025 & have type 2 diabetes. I live in Manitoba. Are you going through CancerCare. What province are you in?

Hi Colleen - Thank you for reaching out.

We did get the PET scan done. It did show activity in the surgical bed of his pancreas. They did a biopsy. It did come back negative, but they did comment that they were not able to get directly into the "hot spot" showing on the PET Scan, because it was too close to other things. Luckily it is isolated to the pancreas for now. We are scheduled to meet with our Oncologist next week along with a Radiation Oncologist. Not sure the plan of action, but I am hoping they will move forward with radiation. Want to kill what ever is happening in there.

@dianegil Same as my husband. Radiotherapy did not work for him and damaged his intestines and stomach. Had 3 surgeries; 2 to fix the damage. Radiotherapy was supposed to work but it did not. He's now back on Folfirinox.

Hello all,
My name is Mike K. I was first diagnosed with stage 4 on 9/25/25 which was found by CT scan. My PCP thought maybe a gall bladder issue. I had been on Ozempic and I think the side effects from that masked my real issue. My second round of chemo is this coming Monday.
Thank you for having me.

@blackie17 Hi Mike and welcome to Mayo Connect. Can you please share what type of pancreatic cancer you have? How was it diagnosed? What type of chemo are you taking? How are you feeling overall? Thanks.

@tomrennie
Hi Tom,
Adenocarcinoma, spots on liver as well. Had biopsy by endo which confirmed the spread. I had visited Sloan Kettering in NYC and also Stonybrook out on LI. Opinions were the same which was inoperable at this point. I live in southern DE.