Pancreatic Cancer: A Silent Killer With Grim Statistics
by: Nina Sparano
COLORADO SPRINGS – -Cancer is an ugly word but none is uglier than a cancer that’s hardly heard of and barely treatable. Pancreatic Cancer is a killer few people know aboutand it’s what you don’t know that can kill you.
The very definition of cancer isan invasive growth or tumor that spreads throughout the body. Cells that grow out of control, invade the body until it shuts down.
Pancreatic cancer is a silent killer because those who have ithave little or no warning.
Dr. Kubegov is a medical oncologist at Memorial Hospital,”there may be no symptoms or sometimes patients present with jaundice.”
Out of seeminglynowhere,Terri Bertolisaid her brother Don looked in the mirror, and saw yellow.
“The cancer had spread from the pancreas, to his liver, to his gall bladder, stomach; it was everywhere,” Terri says.
“There is a substantial cause of morbidity, in fact, after colon cancer, it’s the leading cause of cancer death in the gastro-intestinal tract,”Dr.Kurbegov adds.
For advanced patients, long term survival rate is less than 20 percent.
Doctors gave Don Bertoli six months to live. Six weeks after his diagnosis, Don died suddenly, on April 7, 2004.
Advanced radiation treatment like Tomotherapy at Memorial Hospital is helping to turn those statistics around.
“It allows them to tailor the radiation field very specifically to that target while minimizing exposure to non cancer tissue,” says Dr. Kurbegov.
Tomotherapy gives hope to minimize the tumors, and hopefully, save more lives.
In honor of her brother Don, Terri Bertoli is helping the Pancreatic Cancer Network raise money for awareness, research and a cure. Click here for a link to make a donation.
