HUNTINGTON WOODS, Mich. (WXYZ) — Today is World Pancreatic Cancer Day. You may see buildings lit up purple today, people posting to their stories on social media with #PanCANAwareness and other folks wearing their purple with pride, all to shine a light on the fight against Pancreatic Cancer.
It's a disease that has taken two members of my family — my father and my father-in-law — and remains the only major cancer with a five-year survival rate below 20 percent.
I had a chance to sit down and talk to a survivor, a family member, and a widow about their message to you, to help protect you and your loved ones against the deadly disease.
Watch Alicia Smith's report in the video player below:
Brad Wasserman of Huntington Woods will never forget the 2024 Rose Bowl. The night before the big game, he experienced his first symptom at dinner.
"Right as they served the main course, I said, 'I can't eat anymore'. I just, my stomach just wouldn't let me eat," Wasserman told me. “That night I woke up in the middle of the night with pains all the way across my stomach.”
A week later, he was in the hospital, celebrating Michigan's National Championship win while dealing with some sobering news.
"When you were told it might be pancreatic cancer, what went through your mind?” I asked him.
“The first thing was my mom had been diagnosed three months before," Wasserman said. "So, how could both of us within three months be going from perfectly healthy? She was 82 at the time, totally healthy for a woman of that age, and we both exercised and all those types of things, had no, none of the long-term symptoms of like being overweight or having diabetes.”
"When you look back on what your dad was experiencing in terms of symptoms, what surprised you the most?” I asked his daughter, Rachel.
"I think just that it was, it could have been a stomach ache, it could have been a pulled muscle," Rachel replied.
It's true: the symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer can be very vague, including
- Pain in the abdomen and back
- Abdominal bloating
- Digestive problems
- Jaundice
- Change in stools
- Unexplained weight loss
- Blood clots
- Sudden onset Type 2 Diabetes
A lot of people refer to Pancreatic Cancer as the world's toughest cancer.
“I think cause it's the hardest cancer to diagnose. It's, you don't find out until you're mostly in stage four. We don't have an early detection test," said Debbie Kolacki.
Kolacki with the Pancreatic Cancer Network, or PANCAN, lost her husband to the disease six years ago, and works to raise awareness.
According to the Network, risk factors include:
- Family history
- Inherited genetic mutations
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- Obesity
- Older Age
- Diet
- Alcohol
- Chemical and heavy meal exposure
- Gum Disease
- Pancreatic cysts
- Race or Ethnicity, with Black Americans and Ashkenazi Jews having a higher incidence than other groups.
Brad Wasserman's treatment included six months of chemotherapy after undergoing the Whipple Surgery. I asked him how he's feeling now.
“So, it's been a very difficult journey, but I'm doing I feel now pretty much the way I was before all this started," he said. "So I'm very, very fortunate.”
And what's his main message to people watching this?
“The most important thing I would say is that if you have any type of pain in your stomach, go to your doctor immediately. Don't wait a few days. Go," he said.
His other adice is if you or people in your life are supposed to have tests — an MRI or a CT Scan or any other screening — don't put it off. His mother was having annual screenings related to some cysts, and that's how the doctor found her Pancreatic Cancer.
To find out more about Pancreatic Cancer and important fundraisers, like Purple Stride, click here.
