Integrative Physician's Perspective

摘要

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers, and our patient in this case study presented with an aggressive histology of moderately to poorly differentiated adenocar-cinoma. He also received his diagnosis at an advanced stage of disease, with liver metastases already present. Pancreatic cancer is, unfortunately, like ovarian cancer, still a largely "silent" disease in its earlier stages, and tends not to be diagnosed until it is quite advanced.Nevertheless, this patient has shown an excellent response to treatment. His CA19-9 had been 3667 at his first visit. However, after 6 cycles of treatment with gemcitabineand capecitabine, it fell to 133, and to 88 after 8 cycles. This was accomplished without using the recommended erlotinib, which was not covered by insurance. Furthermore, the patient maintains a good quality of life, although suffering from abdominal pain at the time of the case writeup-subsequently alleviated after further surgery.