Hello Everyone,
This is the first time i have posted into a forum, although for months i have been reading alot.
To be as brief as possible, my Dad was diagnosed in November with stage 2 pancreatic cancer. After 5 weeks in a hospice to try and manage the pain and symptoms, he started his chemotherepy in an attampt to shrink the tumour and move it away from a vein so the operation to remove the pancreas could commence. All through the Chemo/pre-chemo he was advised that all his tests where comming back great and his immune system is/was as they wanted it to be.
Just before his final chemo session (4 weeks ago) he had a CT scan with contrast to see the effect of the chemo on the cancer. A few days later we received a call form his consultant, advising that "he "had viewed the scan resuts prior to sending them to a hospital in Birmingham and in his opinion, they look very positive"
Last Tuesday, the results came in and we was called to the consultants office. At this point we was expecting, as a worst case scenario that the tumour hadnt shrunk enough and more chemo would be required (from what he said the week previous). It was at this point he advised that the chemo has been ineffective and that the hospital in Birmingham will not operate, and gave a prognosis of 6-12 months as there is nothing else they can do.
As im sure some people have had the same, it was worse than the initial diagnosis. My Dad is trying his best to deal with it, but now the symptoms and pain have started again.
My main question is, can we get a second opinion on the operation or any other treatment that could prolong his prognosis without effecting quality of life.
I do understand that the percentage of pancreatic cancer patients that are offered the operations is extremely small, but I feel we must look into this.
Any advise whatsoever would really be appreciated.
Thank you all
Shaun
