Where is best place to go for second opinion for stage 4 pancreatic?

@wjk , thanks for those great links. One of them also had an outlink to a really interesting paper regarding surgical treatment after recurrence: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6679234/

Best wishes with your upcoming treatment and surgery. I hope you can successfully lobby your medical team to perform the most sensitive and frequent recurrence monitoring known to science after surgery, in case anything escapes the first pass and needs attention, which we're all hoping it doesn't! 🙂

When I was first diagnosed in April 2021 I went for a second option at Dana Faber Cancer Center in Boston. Good thing I did as their biopsy showed I had a rare cancer type call Acinar. Definitely get a second option for a piece of mind.

Does anyone know if genetic testing is done and no markers at all are found, if this kind of testing (ctDNA) has no value?

where did you ultimately get treatment?

I’m getting Treated locally at Lowell General Hospital with Dana Faber watching me.

Hi there
My mom got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer via biopsy. They biopsied the mass on the head of the pancreas and said they saw lesions on the liver therefore it is stage 4.

Is there hope here?
I’m from Canada and we’re researching the best center as things can take months here in Canada and we want to get started treating this right away.

Any info appreciated!
Thank you

@burta3 There is always hope.

In this group there are others better informed than me to answer your question, but since no one else has responded yet....

A good starting point is: https://pancan.org/news/choosing-the-best-pancreatic-cancer-doctor-and-hospital-for-you/ I urge you to read this if you haven't already.

One consideration among many is where you're located in Canada and your willingness to travel. (I live in Alaska and am being treated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.) Some of the most renowned hospitals for pancreatic cancer treatment include the Mayo Clinic (MN), John Hopkins (MD), MD Anderson (TX) and Memorial Sloan Kettering (NY). There are others. Most, if not all of these hospitals, have helpful information available at their respective websites.

This is a very supportive and well informed group of folks who speak from their own pancreatic cancer experiences. Ask more questions. You'll get some answers.

I had a Whipple surgery for ampullary cancer (treated as pancreatic) at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto by Dr. Shiva Jayaraman. I was stage 2 so surgery was an immediate option but it might be worth a consult with him. He was highly recommended to me.

My husband was diagnosed with stage 4 in October. Same scenario. He’s had 3 rounds of chemo. Had 13 days off during which he feels better and eating better. We start round 4 on Monday and the two following Mondays. He will have a CT scan 1st week of Jan to see if there’s any progress. Surgery was not an option for him. I don’t have any answers for you but we are staying positive despite the prognosis. We are with Cancer Specialists of North Florida which is part of MD Anderson. We are only a few miles from Mayo but Im just not sold on Mayo for various personal reasons. Stay positive!!

Can you share some of your concerns about Mayo JAX without getting into personal detail? My spouse has been treated there for the last 5 months and so far everything has been good.

Thank you❤️