Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer
- On Sept. 4, Atlanta radio legend Silas "SiMan Baby" Alexander III celebrated his 58th birthday; it was a day to celebrate the longtime on-air personality, but he also shared that he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
- Dr. Anirban Maitra, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, tells us that since the pancreas is inside the abdomen, it often doesn't have symptoms that would tell you that something's wrong with your pancreas like in Alexander’s case.
- Parents, siblings and children of someone with pancreatic cancer are considered at high risk for the disease because they are first-degree relatives of the individual. This means that Alexander’s son, Silas Alexander IV, is now considered high risk for pancreatic cancer since his parent has the disease.
"Over the summer I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer," he told his listeners over the weekend, "which means part of my body has cancer, but the cancer does not have me." His cancer is stage 4.
Read More"Since I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and my father passed away from it … I'm going to encourage my son and his health care professionals to continue to genetically test and look in his life and make sure he doesn't have it because catching it early is the key," Alexander tells CBS 46 News in Atlanta.
Alexander's Diagnosis
Alexander had no idea he had cancer. He told CBS 46 News that the pancreatic cancer was discovered during a scheduled gallbladder surgery; the doctors performed a biopsy on a mass they found in his liver.
The mass turned out to be cancerous or malignant and it originated in his pancreas, Alexander says. Since his diagnosis, he's been on a chemotherapy and radiation regiment, which has forced him off the air and away from his regular Atlanta club appearances, according to CBS 46 News.
"I just want to thank everybody for everything and continue to encourage everyone to love one another," Alexander says. "The blessing in this is I'm still here today and I'm hopefully going to be here tomorrow, and the very close foreseeable future and I'm going to take a little time and make sure I spend it with family and hug the folks that I love."
Related: Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Early Is Crucial
Understanding Pancreatic Cancer and Its Genetic Link
Pancreatic cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the pancreas, which is an organ in your belly, according to the American Cancer Society. (To put it simply, cancer starts when cells in the body begin to grow out of control.)
Dr. Anirban Maitra, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, tells SurvivorNet that since the pancreas is inside the abdomen, it often doesn't have symptoms that would tell you that something's wrong with your pancreas like in Alexander's case. (Maitra is also co-leader of the Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot at MD Anderson, which is a new, inter-disciplinary, innovative approach to research and investigation with the aim of turning pre-clinical findings into pancreatic treatment options.)
Dr. Anirban Maitra explains the challenges of screening for pancreatic cancer.
"By the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain or diabetes," he explains, "it's often very late in the stage of the disease."
The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2021, about 60,430 people will be diagnosed with this type of cancer, and about 48,220 people will die from it, which is to Maitra's point that "most people will die from this disease within a few months to a year or so from the diagnosis," he tells SurvivorNet.
"The reason for that is that most individuals, about 80 percent, will actually present with what we called advanced disease, which means that the cancer has either spread beyond the pancreas or into other organs like the liver, and so you cannot take it out with surgeries," he says. This is exactly what happened in Alexander's case. (If you remember earlier we said that his cancer was discovered when doctors found a mass on his liver that originated in his pancreas.)
This cancer has a five-year survival rate of about 9%. (The five-year survival rate means that people who have that cancer are, on average, about 9% as likely as people who don't have that cancer to live for at least five years after their diagnosis.) So it's vital that this cancer any cancer, really is caught as early as possible, he says.
Parents, siblings and children of someone with pancreatic cancer are considered at high risk for the disease because they are first-degree relatives of the individual. This means that Alexander’s son, Silas Alexander IV, is now considered high risk for pancreatic cancer since his father has the disease and should be screened; a study published in the American Cancer Society Journal found that just 21% of family members considered high risk for pancreatic cancer participated in surveillance.
Last year, the American Gastroenterological Association updated its clinical guidelines for pancreatic cancer screening in high-risk individuals, and at the top of the list of best practices was that screenings should be considered in first-degree relatives of patients with this type of cancer.
"It's important for people to know there is something you can do," Jessica Everett, a genetic counselor at NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, tells SurvivorNet. "If you're concerned about pancreatic cancer in your family, start by talking to a genetic counselor to learn more about your risk and what options you have."
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