Pancreatic Cancer Hard to Diagnose — and Often Deadly
BOUNTIFUL — When Jim Fleshman first went to the doctor, miserable, but with nonspecific symptoms like lower back pain and heartburn, he was given Tums and told to watch his diet. Later doctors suspected gall stones. It wasn’t until he became jaundiced that further testing revealed pancreatic cancer.
It’s a disease with few clear symptoms until it has advanced, moving into other organs, although his family didn’t know it at the time. Four months after the diagnosis, he died at age 52.
There was a lot his family didn’t know, and when they tried to find out more about a form of cancer that strikes about 32,000 Americans a year — a “niche” cancer that doesn’t strike a large enough number to attract as much research as forms that are more common — they didn’t find a lot of resources.
“Awareness is what pushes research dollars,” says his daughter, Julie Fleshman. And awareness of pancreatic cancer is what she intends to raise. She’d just graduated from law school when he was diagnosed in 1999, but his disease changed her career plans. She moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, where she signed on as president and CEO of PanCAN, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
The organization focuses on research and lobbies for money to fund it, she says. It runs a patient services program, including helping patients find clinical trials and simply letting them know they are part of a community. Her dad felt very alone, she says, and so did his family. They didn’t know anyone who had it. And doctors then didn’t give them a lot of reason to hope.
She hopes PanCAN will change all that, offering hope and support and more.
Her job sometimes takes her to unusual places, which is how she happens to be sitting on the grass at Bountiful High School on a Friday afternoon telling her dad’s story. A couple of blocks away, “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” is filming a construction project. They’re building a new home for the Gordon Harrison family of Bountiful, and he has pancreatic cancer.
There are coincidences that must be more than that, she says. ABC asked Z Gallery, which sells furniture, to provide some furnishings for the Harrison home. And the three founders of Z Gallery lost their mother to pancreatic cancer, although when they agreed to work on the home they didn’t know that connection. They’ve been strong supporters of PanCAN, so it only made sense to bring the organization in, Fleshman says.
So she’s been in Bountiful for the weeklong process as Z Gallery’s guest. Later in the day, she’ll be interviewed for the show and will again tell her father’s story and what she’s learned about the cancer.
She’s learned a lot and rattles off facts: The average age at diagnosis is 62, although “we’re seeing it younger and younger.” Men and women get it. There’s no simple early detection. And although there are factors that increase the risk, like smoking, excessive drinking and obesity, as well as a link with diabetes, many diagnosed with pancreatic cancer have no discernible risk factor.
One of the reasons it’s hard to find, she says, is the location of the pancreas, tucked deep in the abdomen. Experts say if you want to hide something in your body, the pancreas would be a great spot. Tumors hide there readily.
What little most Utahns know about pancreatic cancer they learned from Bobbye Sloan, the late wife of Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. She was very open about her diagnosis of breast cancer, which she survived, and later pancreatic cancer, which killed her.
PanCAN provides comprehensive information, including a booklet that’s a complete overview of the cancer. The pancreas, it explains, is a gland about 6 inches long that’s surrounded by the stomach, small intestine, liver and spleen. Its duct delivers pancreatic secretions to part of the small bowel. Its jobs include providing enzymes to help in digestion of fats, carbohydrates and proteins and it produces the hormones insulin and glucagon, which team up to maintain the right amount of sugar in the blood.
The pancreas can host a variety of cancers, from the deadly to the benign. About 15 percent of pancreatic cancers are hereditary.
Detected in an early stage, with no spread, small tumors can be removed surgically. Tumors that extend beyond the pancreas may be resectable, if they don’t involve the local arteries or lymph nodes. If it spreads, it will most likely invade the liver, abdominal wall, lung or distant lymph nodes.
Treatments may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and palliative measures.
PanCAN has scored some successes. It sponsors grants to interest young researchers in the disease and the body of knowledge is growing, Fleshman says. They’ve seen federal spending for pancreatic cancer research grow from $17.5 million dollars to more than $50 million. And the organization has more than 80 volunteer affiliates nationwide. In fact, about 125 volunteers from the Wasatch Front were working on the home makeover Friday, helping to haul furniture.
Information about PanCAN and the disease is available online at www.pancan.org.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com