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Abort chemo Rx & go straight to surgery while I am still Stage 1?
Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: Apr 12 6:33pm | Replies (34)Comment receiving replies
My thoughts - I am not a medical professional.
This disease is sneaky and hard to beat - if me, I would relocate to one of the handful of centers of excellence with specific focus in pancreatic cancer. As an example, Mayo Rochester is one of these, but Mayo Jacksonville is not. MSKCC and John's Hopkins and MD Anderson are, I believe.
Quick note on CA 19-9. It is a secondary, sort of tracking blood market test. Any number above either 34 or 37 (manufacturer dependent) may mean pancreatic cancer, but there is no "better than" relationship if the number is lower than those numbers.
Replies to "My thoughts - I am not a medical professional. This disease is sneaky and hard to..."
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Thanks for providing the list of hospitals; I might need them in the future if it returns. I’m going to add a comment on the CA19-9 statement. Lower is better even under the 37 limit and the reason why is well I’m 4 mos since my last chemo session and 1 year past my distal surgery; my last marker was at 6 and as of yesterday it just quadrupled to 24, yet I’m still in the “acceptable” range so this is why lower the better. No comment from my oncologist on this but I just hope my next bloodwork doesn’t show any more increases like this one.