It’s frustrating. My husband was diagnosed 11/30 and he started chemo 1/5/22. We blamed the holidays and doctors being on vacation for having to wait 5 weeks. I know when you hear the word cancer you think everything should be done immediately and unfortunately the medical world ‘s time frame is different. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer they said I could take several months to decide on treatments. I don’t think pancreatic cancer patients have that luxury though. It seems far too aggressive to me. Where do you live?

Obviously it depends a lot on where you are and the level of care available in your area. If he was prescribed starting chemo, every day counts. My wife was diagnosed the 3rd week of July 2019 had her port implanted the following Tuesday and chemo started Wednesday.

That seems like a long wait to begin chemo if no surgery has taken place and time required for healing. For pancreatic cancer, I followed the advice of going to a primary level academic affiliated medical center that was an NCI designated Center of Excellence in Cancer Treatment. It also had a pancreas center with surgical oncologists that did over 100 Whipple procedures a year and oncologists who were pancreatic specialists.

There was no way I was going to be treated for pancreatic cancer at one of two local medical centers.They had no pancreas program nor the expertise and high volume of patients. I got myself on the train to NYC got a 4’20” round trip where I had my surgery and all of my chemo and scans. For my clinical trial I traveled an even longer round trip when I did it by train. This was too important to consider going to local hospitals. The travel was nothing when considering where I went for treatment of stage IV disease saved my life and now a 10 year survivor.

If you are unhappy with the lack of treatment and no sense of urgency, contact the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCan.org). The Patient Central group of case managers can provide names of experienced oncologists and medical centers with pancreas programs by State and region. Call 877.272.6226, M-F, 7:00am-5:00pm PT. You should not feel obligated to stay at the first location if they are not prioritizing one’s care nor should you be intimidated to seek additional opinions.