← Return to What's recovery after distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy like?

Discussion
Comment receiving replies
@thawk32

I’m currently doing radiation for 28 days at Mass Hospital in Boston. My medical team of surgeon Dr. Fernandez radation doctor Dr. Hong had said they had great success with having radiation prior to surgery. I was wondering who you saw at Mass General and why they opted to do radiation after surgery. Hope you’re doing well.

Jump to this post


Replies to "I’m currently doing radiation for 28 days at Mass Hospital in Boston. My medical team of..."

They were not able to get a good biopsy of my tumor so it was not possible to determine whether it was adenocarcinoma or a neuroendocrine tumor. The surgeon felt that it was the later based on the MRI and suggested removal. The pathology post surgery indicated that it was stage 3 adenocarcinoma. Therefore, I had chemo and chemo/radiation after surgery. Dr Hong is also my radiation oncologist. The chemo/radiation is designed to kill any remaining cancer cells left at the surgical site as well as lymph nodes and blood vessels. My CA19-9 has been under 10 since starting chemo and both a CT Scan and MRI at the conclusion of my 12th chemo cycle are clean. Dr Hong told me that I could opt out of radiation. However, the data indicates that adding the chemo/radiation improves long term survival rates. After going through 6 months of folfirinox I figured I’m all in at this point and would like to see a cure. I trust Dr Hong. I assume that you had chemo and radiation prior to surgery? That is the recommended protocol but unfortunately in my case because they could not get a good biopsy I had surgery first. Hope that provides clarification. Also hope that you’re doing well. All the best for the Holidays and New Year.