Hello!

Hello Sarahjane

I am sorry to hear your news. Your question about chemo is quite hard to answer. There are two or three types available for pancreatic cancer and my experience of having been on these forums for a while is that different people react in different ways. My husband was 'lucky' in that he was able to have the Whipple procedure but the cancer returned or maybe they didn't get it all. He had a chemo called Gemcitabine which did nothing to halt the cancer but he had no side effects. He then had one called Folfirinox which is pretty brutal and from which he had four hospitalisations over a two month period. I have no idea whether it prolonged his life but it certainly made his last months pretty miserable.

The oncologist will recommend whether they think chemo will help. They cannot really tell how long it might prolong life and they use clinical trials to try to judge this but everyone is different.

In the end if it is offered it will be up to your mum to accept it or not but it is worth thinking of whether the side effects might outweigh the benefits or vice versa.

Squeaky

Thanks so much for you reply Squeaky.  Mum's appointment with the oncologist has been brought forward to tomorrow from next week so we should find out what's happening then. Sarah

Its such a shock being told news like this.

Do let us know how the appt goes xx