Hello Sandra and thanks for your post,

I am sorry to hear about your brother.

I can understand that you want information on your brother's outlook but this is really a question that is best answered by his doctors who are involved in his care.

A lot will depend on the outcome of the MDT and any decisions that are made there. If your brother is strong enough after the Whipple's procedure the doctors may consider giving him some chemotherapy to help control the cancer. This may help to control the cancer for a few months but hopefully for a bit longer. The doctors would probably want to see whether the chemotherapy was helping to shrink the cancer before they could say more about his outcome.

I am also not sure whether a clinical trial may be an option but he could always ask his team. Trials are not always straightforward to join as they have a strict eligibility criteria which you brother would have to meet.

We do have a database of clinical trials but it would only be his own doctors who could say whether this may be possible. In order to enter a trial your brother would have to be referred to the hospital where the trial was taking place if his doctor thought he was eligible.

Doctors are also reluctant to say 'how long someone has got' as they are basing their predictions on others with a similar cancer and everyone's cancer behaves in different ways.

I do hope you know more soon.

Do give us a ring if you would like to talk through anything with one of the helpline nurses. The number to ring is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm.

All the best,

Catherine

Thank you Catherine for getting back to me. I know it's a difficult question to answer, especially as pancreatic cancer doesn't have a very good survival rate.

I'm not sure my brother wants to know how long he's got. For me I like to be more " prepared" but as you say it's very individual. 

I'm just feeling " lost " at the moment and numb. Thank you for the numbers 

Sandra xx