Most people don’t even know they have a pancreas, let alone what it does. One of my patients, Richard, was no exception. He came to see me after experiencing several months of weight loss and fatigue.
A CT scan revealed a concerning spot on his pancreas as well as other spots on his liver, and a biopsy confirmed our worst fears: He had pancreatic cancer. The spots on his liver also were pancreatic cancer cells, indicating the cancer had spread, or metastasized, to another organ. Richard’s cancer was advanced and likely to result in his death.
In more than two decades as a doctor, I’ve diagnosed more than 1,000 patients with pancreatic cancer, and giving this kind of news is never easy. Richard was 65, had just retired a few months earlier and was looking forward to spending time with his grandchildren. When I called him with his results, he was understandably devastated. I marveled once again at the destructiveness of this disease.
