The Fight Continues
- November marks Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
- Patrick Swayze’s widow is raising awareness about pancreatic cancer after the actor passed away from the disease in 2009.
- Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult types of cancer to treat, and a majority of diagnoses are caught in later stages.
November marks Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) has created a campaign to highlight inspiring figures who have battled, and continue battle, this complicated cancer. The campaign kicks off with late actor Patrick Swayze, who passed away in September of 2019, at just 57-years-old. In a new video, Niemi Swayze discusses her late husband’s battle with pancreatic cancer, revealing the actor passed away less than 2 years after he was diagnosed. She acknowledges how research towards pancreatic cancer has improved over the years, but there still needs to be a lot of work done to help more people see successful treatment outcomes.
Read MoreNavigating Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic cancer is known as one of the most difficult types of cancers to treat, and often caught in later stages. According to Dr. Anirban Maitra, 80% of diagnoses are caught in later stages since symptoms don't present themselves until the disease has already spread. Currently, the five-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients is just 9%.
Cancers caught in late stages typically have less treatment outcomes, but pancreatic cancer is especially difficult. The reason is because of the stroma a barrier around cancer cells which prevents medications, such as chemotherapy and radiation, from targeting and killing these cells. If these cells continue to grow, then the disease will continue to progress.
"Think of pancreatic cancer as an oatmeal raisin cookie and the raisins are actually the cancer cells, and the cookie part is actually all the stroma around it," Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet. "And imagine having to navigate through all that stroma for a treatment to be able to get into a cell to kill it. So that's why the treatments just really aren't good enough to penetrate the cancer. But we're improving, we're getting better treatments."
Dr. Allyson Ocean explains why pancreatic cancer is so hard to treat
Public Figures Battling Pancreatic Cancer: Raising Awareness
In addition to Swayze, other public figures including Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek and Senator Harry Reid have also been open about their battles with pancreatic cancer. Celebrities speaking out about cancer can really have long-lasting impact on people learning more about the disease, and apparently it has greatly paid off.
“As a result of Alex [Trebek]’s PSA, we have seen significantly increased traffic to [pancreatic cancer organizations]," The World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition told SurvivorNet. "People can learn more about the disease, the symptoms, and risks, how they can take action to raise awareness, as well as find local Coalition members who can provide many services and support for people living with and affected by pancreatic cancer.”
Advancements in treatment options for pancreatic cancer have been slow, but both Trebek and Reid have discussed a new experimental therapy which has shown incredible results. The treatment was discovered by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, and it uses immunotherapy to awaken the body’s natural defenses without administering chemotherapy or radiation.
“We've gone now to this next level of immunotherapy," Dr. Soon-Shiong tells SurvivorNet. "What's exciting is that you have, in your own body, three cells that you were born with to protect you against infection and cancer. The problem is cancer has figured out a way to hide so your immune system can't find it. So the first step is just to very quickly expose the tumor. Then we give a simple subcutaneous injection, like a flu shot, of a protein that activates two of these cells called the natural killer cell and T-cell. These cells kill just the tumor, and that's in essence the protocol."
Senator Harry Reid talks to SurvivorNet about the experimental therapy he used for pancreatic cancer
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