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To: ConservativeMind; Myrddin
I also review a study writeup site like Medical Xpress for terms relating to the condition. To do this, I go to the site and use the search option available on the corner menu and type it in (scroll to the bottom to find the search box). I then go through the study write ups.

https://medicalxpress.com/

I found few for your cancer, but the following one showed a new therapy approach that showed this success (overall survival (OS)):

Different outcomes for positive, negative pancreatic cancer patients receiving chemoradiation and systemic therapy

“The primary endpoint for the trial was OS, which was only improved for patients with node-negative disease (5-year OS 48.1% for patients on the Chemo+CRT arm versus 28.6% on the Chemo arm).”

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-outcomes-positive-negative-pancreatic-cancer.html

It sounded like you may be considered node negative right now. If so, consider this option, which greatly increases overall survival at five years.

As this condition is rare and has less on it, my final review becomes the most manual review, which is a search of the studies off search terms from the NIH PubMed site:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Why do I limit my use of AI? Because the output is beset by political correctness around what are the most professionally-agreed upon answers, which hides the one-off studies of something novel. Why do I like “novel?” Because it can be harmless to try out, yet, not have a Cochrane Review-level of “authority.” I have had great success with these “hidden”opportunities. “Novel” does not mean “scientifically implausible,” however.

General website searches can also bring up these actionable study references, but often, study outcomes are just included in a paragraph with no named study to go back and reference. I do find search engines have the same bias (“weighting”) that can prevent less known research from sparking an idea path to then follow with a deeper dive. The NIH site seems largely free from bias, compared with most search engines.

63 posted on 07/29/2025 7:41:53 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind
My pathology report said "no lymph nodes involved". The complication is that my renal artery was nicked during the surgery. It took a week to bleed out enough to make me dizzy and 10 units of blood to recover the lost volume. The nick was "embolized" by the interventional radiology team. The large volume of blood in my peritoneal cavity took months to drain and an abscess formed between my stomach and liver. It was staph, but not MRSA in the abscess. Likely infected during placement of drains. I later developed MRSA pneumonia. It required 5 weeks of IV infusions of vancomycin (1 gram every 12 hours) and cephalosporin (IV push every 8 hours). My wife managed the IV bag swaps and IV push at home. The infection was finally declared clear in late November. Because of the infections, I was not a candidate for post-op chemo to ensure anything "missed" was mopped up. The medical oncologist stated that efficacy of using chemo beyond the 12 week point after surgery is not supported and will not be pursued. Frankly, I'm happy to have dodged the chemo poisoning regimen.

Ampullary cancer is less the 0.5% of pancreatic type cancers. Pancreatic cancer is termed "peri-Ampullary". The number of studied cases is small, yet the survival statistics aren't very encouraging.

Thank you for your research and links.

64 posted on 07/29/2025 11:04:51 AM PDT by Myrddin
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