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Pancreatic Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others
Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: 4 hours ago | Replies (1375)Comment receiving replies
@mbcfl
I am a stage IV patient diagnosed 11/2021. I am not a medical professional but I am associated with a pancreatic center of excellence in atlanta and have also ventured other places for consults. I am currently NED. I have seen through the actions of the multidisciplinary tumor board that reviews my case; they want datapoints (CA19-9 and CT DNA) as low as possible when they operate. Surgery can be curative! But, if the tumor is “alive” when removed, cells have spread and there will be recurrences elsewhere. My surgeon is skilled at the DaVinci (laperoscopic) approach as well as open(which I just had) but only wants to operate when my values are as low as possible. why? Because depending on your overall health and recovery, chemo cannot begin again for 4-8 weeks! A lot can happen elsewhere in that timeframe .
I understand your anxiousness for surgery! I was elated to schedule my pancreadectomy! But it came only after 14 rounds of Fulfurinox. I started at CT19-9 of 23,000. At surgery I was down to 45. My pancreas tumor was dead on arrival.
SO-I would either get a third opinion for a tie breaker or stay on chemo if it appears to be working.
NOTE:all of our situations are different based on health, age, pre-existing conditions, etc. Just my food for thought! Pls keep us in the loop on your decision. Prayers for you and this tough decision.
Replies to "@mbcfl I am a stage IV patient diagnosed 11/2021. I am not a medical professional but..."
I meant to ask you since it sounds like you have had both open and robotic surgery if you have a strong preference for one or the other. My surgical oncologist at Moffitt only does it open, but the surgical oncologist at UC would do it robotically.
I have been previously advised, whatever skill set a surgeon is most comfortable with should be the determining factor.
But I have been researching that the recovery time from an open surgery would be longer, more painful and associated with increased complications, compared to robotic. Do you have any thoughts about that?
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Good morning!
I appreciate the time you took to read my very lengthy post and your response. It would appear however, as the tumor marker is trending upwards every several weeks, and there was a new finding on imaging about contact with 2 vessels that was not present three weeks prior that the chemo is not working. I actually did reach out for a third opinion from an integrative medical doctor I have been seeing. He is an Asian medical oncologist by training with 20 years of conventional experience. But now he has branched out and is offering acupuncture, Chinese, herbal medicine and checking the tongue and pulse pressures to obtain more information from that perspective. He is also an agreement that surgery will be the way to go.
Followed most likely by the Folfirinox post-op as the Gem/Abrazane has not seemed to help.
I wish you well in your journey and again, thank you for your input!
Marilyn