Patrick Swayze recently died of pancreatic cancer. This is the same disease that Gee had fought the last fourteen months of her life. It is a very poorly understood cancer and one that is very difficult to diagnose. This is mostly due to a lack of specific symptoms in many cases. Also, many of the common symptoms, such as fatigue, abdominal pain, lack of appetite, and weight loss, have many other causes, making mis-diagnosis common. In fact, over 50% of the cases diagnosed are only diagnosed after the cancer has metastasized. To make matters worse, currently, there is no effective test for early detection of pancreatic cancer.
According to this web article, in 2006, the American Cancer Society predicted that 33,730 people would be diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, and that 32,300 people would die of it. Even though it is only the 11th most common form of cancer, it is the fourth deadliest.
Cancer Mortality for Women 1930-2005
Cancer Mortality for Men 1930-2005
Recently, researchers have linked a majority of pancreatic cancer to a mutation in the genes. This may lead to an effective test for pancreatic cancer, and possible lead to effective, specifically targeted, chemotherapy treatments for the disease. It may also allow people to be screened for the mutation and warn them of a possible pre-disposition to the disease. Any of these would decrease the mortality of the disease.
I’d point out that Gee’s case was fairly unusual. Gee was in the minority, as the median age of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is 72, and less than 0.6% of the people who die from it are younger than 35 years of age. Also, as far as I know, Gee did not have any of the risk factors that are normally associated with pancreatic cancer, such as smoking, long-term diabetes, a family genetic pre-disposition to the disease, being grossly obese, etc.
The only reason her cancer was diagnosed when it was was due to the tumor blocking the bile duct and causing Gee to become jaundiced. If that had not happened, it is very likely that she would not have been diagnosed in time for it to be operable and her life would have been cut even shorter.
The one-year survival rate for a pancreatic adenocarcinoma patient is only about 20%. One reason for this relatively high mortality rate is the advanced state that the disease is usually in when it is finally diagnosed. The difficulty in diagnosing pancreatic cancer can be seen in the statistics—almost as many people die of the disease as are diagnosed with it in any given year. As I said earlier, over 50% of diagnosed pancreatic cases are only diagnosed after it has spread.
The overall five-year survival rate for a pancreatic cancer for the years 1995-2001 was only 4.6%. If the cancer was diagnosed while still localized, the five-year survival rate jumps to 16%.
Unlike many other forms of cancer, which are either easily detected, easily diagnosed or have an effective treatment regimen like Taxol for breast cancer—Pancreatic cancer has no really effective treatment regimen, and is difficult to detect, and difficult to diagnose properly. The problems in properly detecting and diagnosing Pancreatic Cancer, and the lack of any really effective treatment regimen are the main causes for its high mortality rate.
What needs to be done about Pancreatic Cancer is research in two main areas, and increased patient outreach and support:
Early Detection/Diagnosis—The recent breakthrough of a mutation linked to a majority of the pancreatic cancers may lead to an effective detection/early diagnosis test for pancreatic cancers that are otherwise asymptomatic. This would lead to increased effectiveness of chemical, surgical and radiation therapies currently available.
Effective Treatment—New medicines and targeted gene therapy regimens are really the only hope for treating Pancreatic Cancer. Radiation therapy and surgery are often not very useful in its treatment, especially given the current difficulties in diagnosis and detection. Once it has metastasized, radiation and surgery based treatment is mostly impractical.
Patient Outreach and Support—From my experience with Gee’s illness, and from talking to people who have had survived pancreatic cancer as well as their caregivers, patient outreach and support is critical. Many of the patients who have pancreatic cancer are elderly, as the median age of patients diagnosed is 72 years old. Many of these patients don’t have the social or familial support that Gee had, and as such the quality of their medical care and their lives suffers.
While there is little I can do about the research side, I have started the Gee Yun Kim Memorial Foundation to help with the patient outreach and support side for pancreatic cancer patients. The foundation is still a work in progress, but I hope to have most of it up and running by next year. I am in the progress of writing a book about my Life with Gee, currently called “No Greater Love”, and all of the profits from the book, once it is published, will go towards funding Gee’s foundation. Stay tuned for more on this…