Not locally advanced--it's actually stage 4

You're welcome. Just take everything one day at a time. Find a little happiness in each day.

All good NCteacher. If they do tissue samples to see what drugs work, let me know. That sounds like a great idea. I didn't know that was possible.

OK, saw the medical oncologist this morning and have much more info. He said the scans clearly show the mass in the body of the pancreas, but nothing else. However, his visual check during the laparoscopy shows several small, flat spots of cancer throughout the abdomen. He described it as if someone had flicked their fingers and sprinkled a drop here and a drop there. They're too tiny to appear on the scans, but he can see them. I'm going to begin chemo on 4/24--modified Folfirinox regimen. I need to quit my job and go on part-time disability if they'll approve it. I still have very few effects from the cancer, just an occasional light backache and sometimes off-appetite, but nothing else. The MD is estimating I'll start to feel more effects by June or July. He is estimating 1-3 years survival, so our new motto, to misquote Buzz Lightyear, "To 3 years and beyond!" One more intriguing side note: The MD said that in 20 years of practice, I am the first patient he's met whose cancer was discovered during screening/preventative assessments. Oh yeah, we're going to test the tissue samples to determine whether this chemo regimen is the best or whether there is another combo of drugs that might be more effective.

Thanks for the reminder that “stage IV” is just a label. As someone who has never had any health issues, when I initially heard my diagnosis, that label was gut wrenching. And the doctor who delivered it did so brutally. And so did the initial oncologist.

I switched doctors. I’m well aware of the prognosis but I plan to fight this as long and hard as I can. I want doctors who will do the same-not doctors who just go thru the motions. I know I was very sick at the beginning (back in June 22) but looking back it was the pancreatitis that made me so sick the first 2-3 months as I started chemo. The chemo isn’t fun but I have been told I’m tolerating it and will do radiation soon. Except for chemo days the lack of stamina it brings, I feel fine.

I think with this cancer, second opinions are always helpful.

Robee, hearing the news was hard. I cried for a few minutes. The doctor just let me process the info with tears. I looked at my wife still with tears. She looked at me and said, "game on?" I played a lot of sports growing up. When I needed that extra gear to raise the level of play, my dad would pull me aside and say game on. For some reason, that always fired me up. I looked at the doc and said "game on. How do we kick cancers ass?" Robee, welcome to the team. Time for you to kick cancers ass with us.

Why the 1-3 years survival? I think that I am missing something?

@tomrennie, I assume that the flat, thin lesions are so difficult to trace that there's no way to be sure the chemo got them all. And they can't be removed surgically; trying to do that would be a fool's errand. Do you have another idea that we should ask about? At this point, we can use all the ideas we can get.

What specific kind of cancer do you have again?

I have stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The main tumor is in the body of the pancreas; the laparoscopy last week found multiple flat, thin nodules on my diaphragm and elsewhere in my abdomen. (I don't have a specific number of nodules, nor do I think they could really count accurately anyway.) I don't have any info other than that. They are going to test tissue samples to see which drug(s) the cells respond to. Right now, we'll start with modified Folfirinox.

Do you know what kind of cancerous tumors you have? For example, I have stage IV pancreatic cancer with neuroendocrine tumors. Please ask away. Some one on here has valuable input but the type of tumor makes a difference on treatment. I hope I am making sense?