Hello, my Mom is doing a lot better, thankfully. The surgery was successful in that it cleared up all her symptoms and she is back to feeling normal. The recovery also was uneventful and was feeling better very quickly, thankfully. She is exercising again, eating normally, and her energy level is basically back to normal too. She also had a scan about 10 days ago, which showed no return of the cancer so far. The only thing that showed up was a small spot on the liver, which has been there since May and our oncologist isn't worried about it- he's not convinced it's a met. We are hoping our clinical trial opens up soon that targets the tumor's specific genetic fusion, which the tumor needs to survive and grow. Thank you for asking!

I'm sorry to hear your hospital is hesitating about the surgery. I'm not sure why they are doing that. What I have read is that surgery is discouraged when a cancer is very aggressive or if the patient is very old and has a lot of other health issues. For example, in my Mom's case, her variant of pancreatic cancer is known to be normally a bit more slow growing, so surgery made more sense to the doctor. In your situation, the cancer does not seem aggressive, since your Mom was NED for 3 years (which is a very long time compared to averages) and it sounds like the ovarian mets have not grown much since they were discovered in the scan. This shows the cancer is not aggressive. I would be persistent and strong with your hospital and really push that you want surgery. If they still give you a tough time, please pursue second and third opinions. Try to find a surgeon that is aggressive. I'm not sure where you are located, but if you are interested in coming to Southern California where we live, I can recommend our local surgeons. I'm not sure how large the mets are, but if they are small, maybe they can even do the surgery laparoscopically. Please be strong with your meeting with your surgeon and tell him that chemo wasn't helpful and that you want surgery to get back to NED. In terms of testing, I think they would do a PET scan to see if the cancer is in other places. But again, even if it is, surgery can still help. You can also do to a larger surgery if needed like debulking surgery or cytoreductive surgery if the cancer shows up in other parts of the abdomen. There are options out there, but in pancreatic cancer, I've noticed that surgery is discouraged because for most people, the cancer is too aggressive. But in situations like yours where the cancer is not so aggressive, surgery can be extremely helpful. Keep reminding them that your cancer has not behaved like the typical pancreatic cancer, and thus, they should not treat it like an average, textbook aggressive cancer. They should be open to trying other treatments such as surgery. Continue to pursue other medical opinions if you are not happy with what your doctors are saying. Please let me know if you have any questions.