A bit about my fight...

I was fortunate to have been diagnosed early enough that my pancreatic tumor was resectable without needing chemo or radiation before hand. Stage 1B (T2 N0 M0). There was no involvement of any other tissue, including blood vessels.

I had a modified Whipple 19 days after I received the diagnosis. The procedure lasted 8 1/2 hours. In the pathology report I got from the surgeon 8 days later ( a couple hours before discharge to home) the tumor had grown to Stage 2B (T3 NX M0), but was well defined (clean margins), not infiltrating any tissue other than the pancreas, and 4 of 29 lymph nodes excised were suspect, but not confirmed.

The surgeon (Dr H Richard Alexander at the U MD Med Center in Baltimore) asked me to consider chemo as a followup. He recommended it as a safeguard.

When I had the staples out 3 weeks after the surgery, we again talked of chemo, and I agreed it would be a prudent measure to take. He excused himself, said he was going to research oncologists in my home area so I would not have to make the 2 1/2 hour trip to Baltimore for treatment.

A week later I was talking with Dr Minal Shah at the local cancer recovery center in California, MD. I liked her off the mark, listened to me, gave me clear answers to my questions, explained chemo, what it did to cancer cells, what it might do to me.

I accepted her recommendation of a course of Gemzar (with Zophran for nausea before the toxin), which was to be 3 weeks of treatments and 4th week as labs over the course of 6 cycles. She and the infusion nurse also decided that since I have well defined veins, a port would not be necessary, at least at first.

The 1st treatment was on 15 July, 2nd on the 22nd, on 29 July, my blood work was such that Dr Shah immediately modified the schedule to 2 weeks on 1 week off, keeping to the recommended amount of treatments, this made it 9 cycles.

Fast forward to the beginning of December. Just before cycle 8 I’d had a CT scan. Dr Shah and I reviewed it and my latest blood work on 8 December after the infusion for the day. She said, that Cycle 8 was my final cycle. She was shortening the course because my scans and blood work kept coming back clear.

I had no noticeable pain during the treatments. The main effect I had was fatigue and vague flu like symptoms.

A long way to say, yes, the chemo was worth it. I may not make the 5 years (or beyond) but I have had more time than otherwise.