The Marriott CEO Joins Alex Trebek, Alan Rickman, and Patrick Swayze, Who All Died of Pancreatic Cancer; What Are Treatment Options for This Disease?

Sorenson, says MSNBC, “was the third CEO in Marriott's history and the first outside its founding family.” It was announced in May 2019 that Sorenson had been diagnosed with stage two pancreatic cancer.

Treatment Options for Pancreatic Cancer

While we don’t know what type of treatment Sorenson received for his cancer, we do know that pancreatic cancer treatment options include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgical removal of the pancreas. Immunotherapy has also now become an option.

Related: Patrick Swayze's Widow Says "He Had to Fight" for His Role in 'Ghost' as She Continues to Fight for Those With Pancreatic Cancer

“Although pancreatic cancer survival rates have been improving for decades, it's still considered to be largely incurable,” Dr. Anirban Maitra, the Co-Leader of the Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot at MD Anderson Cancer Center, says in a previous interview. “An exception to this is if the tumor is still small enough and localized enough to be operated on. As most pancreatic cancers are particularly aggressive and progress rapidly, this means we need to catch them early.”

Detecting Pancreatic Cancer

For those like Sorenson who are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, early detection of the disease is crucial, in terms of expanded treatment options and, potentially, prognosis. Early detection typically means that a wider range of treatment options may be available to the patient.

Related: "Little House on the Prairie" Actor Michael Landon Passed from Pancreatic Cancer in 1991; The Actor Was Annoyed with How the Press Covered His Diagnosis

Dr. Maitra tells us in an earlier interview, "So the pancreas is an organ in your belly. And this is where pancreatic cancer arises. Because the pancreas is inside the abdomen, it often doesn't have symptoms that would tell you that something is wrong with your pancreas. By the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain, or diabetes, it's often very late in the stage of the disease."

"Each year in the United States, about 53,000 patients get pancreatic cancer,” he says. “And unfortunately, most will die from this disease within a few months to a year or so from the diagnosis. And the reason for that is that most individuals, about 80%, 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. Only about 20% of individuals will actually be candidates for surgery."

Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Early Is Crucial

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