I honestly didn't know that this disease was so widespread or effected so many! It has been very eye-opening to read all of your posts!

I do wish Mr. Swayze the best of health!

He was so cute in Dirty Dancing!

He will always be Orry Main (North & South) in his West Point uniform to me. (swoon).

Since they said he had an undisclosed surgery a month ago, maybe he had the Whipple then?

When a person has a whipple they can expect to lose as much as 1/4 their body weight right away. After a while, they will regain some, but should expect to maintain at least a 15% body weight loss from their original weight for the rest of their life.

As he was seen looking "tired and thin" I would expect that is what he had. It is a BRUTAL surgery with a 50% complication rate. The greatest/most frequent complication is gastroparesis (basically your digestive system is paralyzed and you can not eat) and treatment of that requires a feeding tube. The gastroparesis can last as long as 6 months but typically last about 12 weeks. My sisters lasted about 8 weeks and it was really really hard on her body. She lost about 50 pounds over all.

Dear Lord! That sounds awful.

Sage, I'm so glad your sister made it through that and is now cancer-free. I'm wishing for the same results here.

I'd be VERY careful about what you declare as "optimal" treatment. You're not his physician, you don't have access to his medical records.

Here's the thing folks: Pancreatic Cancer is VERY, VERY bad. Absolutely this is due to the fact that it rarely is caught early. Sometimes the only presenting symptoms are decreased appetite, vague abdominal pain and depression - certainly not things that scream cancer. The mortality associated with pancreatic cancer is not due to it being a particularly aggressive cancer, quite the opposite, if it progressed faster it might give more symptoms and be caught sooner. It's really a very silent killer.

No I don't have access to his records, and I am NOT his doctor. We were discussing the nature of Pancreatic Cancer and the generalized *average* prognosis for those with the disease.

I only know the mountains of information that I have read over the last 8 months following my sister's diagnosis with PC. The optimal treatment *is* as developed at MD Anderson in Houston TX for all pancreatic types that are treatable with or without surgery -- radiation concurrent with gemzar chemotherapy. Whipple procedure ONLY as indicated based on tumor size, location and arterial involvment.

Pancreatic Cancer generally affects individuals who are 55 or older (my sister was 45), and they typically have had the disease at least 1.5 to 2 years before it is discovered. A standardized blood test has been developed. It is the Ca-19-9 marker (anything above a 35 is considered "postive"). Just like with ovarian cancer (Ca-125 marker), regular blood tests for individuals who have a familial relation who has had pancreatic cancer are in order. I had my level done immediately upon her drs recommendation.

My sister's tumor was found *incredibly* early (< then 5 months based on a body scan she had had in Feb 07), she was very young to have PC and she was in excellent health otherwise. The pathology showed her tumor to be a T1-N0-M0 as good as you could possible pray for with PC. She is by no means completely out of the woods, as she must have quarterly blood tests and CT scans for the next two years and forever with semi-annual blood tests and CT scans.

Very true. Although there are standard courses of treatment, every patient is treated individually. Especially with the growing list of biotech/targeted therapies used to fight cancer, there is no "optimal" treatment for everyone.

ETA: keep in mind that many patients opt for certain treatments based on quality of life considerations.

I loved "Red Dawn"! He was the best in that and "Dirty Dancing". I wanna get the 20th anniversary DVD of "Dirty Dancing". It's really sad that this had to happen to him.

This is my point exactly - while there are 'standards of care' and treatment protocols that are frequently used, to say that anything is the "optimal" treatment is simply incorrect medically. Even further, I'd say that it would be unethical for a medical professional to label almost any treatment for any disease "optimal", especially one with as many side effects as combined chemo, radiation, and surgery. The fact that this triple therapy is even a standard treatment protocol belies the horrible outcomes associated with pancreatic cancer.

Has anybody seen this, it's called "The Last Lecture" by a Carnegie Mellon professor, Randy Pausch, who is battling (dying of) pancreatic cancer. It's about 10 minutes long, but it's so worth it and if you don't get choked up at the end, your heart's made of ice...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgyuYHXqlO4

And he posts regular medical updates on his website: http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html

The concept is extremely sad and I notice that the audience was crying.

His story is so great, heartbreaking but inspiring. My college alumni paper has been keeping tabs on this ever since the "Last Lecture" (I went to his alma mater), so I knew he was making it a little longer than most PC patients.