CLEVELAND — Alan Grewell of New Philadelphia is one man who is beating the odds three years after his diagnosis.
Grewell is an easy-going bass player in the band, Ren Rocks. Like most, he wasn't fond of hospitals.
"I'd have a pain I'd go to the ER, it would go away and I'd never go back for a second appointment," Grewell said.
But when he noticed his body wasn't digesting fats, they just passed through his system, he knew something wasn't right. He went to that follow up appointment at Cleveland Clinic and learned his pancreas was in trouble.
“I had an ampullary tumor and I had a 9 mm dead center tumor in my pancreas that they removed and it's a miracle I’m still here,” Grewell said.
The team removed his spleen and gall bladder too, then Grewell underwent chemo. Three years later, he's a pancreatic cancer survivor beating the odds.
"I was so happy, I was dreading what was gonna happen in the future, I knew it would be a horrible ending, at least I thought it was gonna be, then I got with the greatest team in the world, and they saved my life," Grewell said.
Dr. Matt Walsh is Cleveland Clinic Chair of the Department of Surgery and specializes in pancreatic cancer.
"It's still a highly lethal disease that's difficult to diagnose and treat primarily because there aren't a lot of great symptoms and there isn't a wonderful screening test like colonoscopy for colon cancer," Dr. Walsh said.
Symptoms can be vague, but may include jaundice or yellowing of eyes and skin, dark urine, light colored or greasy stools, itchy skin, belly or back pain, weight loss and poor appetite as well as blood clots and diabetes.
Dr. Walsh advises those who are diagnosed with diabetes after age 50 also undergo a pancreatic cancer screening, which would involve imaging to see if there are any abnormalities with the pancreas.
The pancreas has two jobs. It secretes enzymes to help with digestion and hormones to help balance blood sugar.
The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 11%. Grewell knows how lucky he is, and he hopes his story helps others to be more proactive.
"Sometimes I wake up in the morning and forget that this even happened to me cause I feel so good," Grewell said.
There is some hope on the horizon. They're researching using a combination of chemo and immunotherapy to use the patient's own immune system to fight the cancer. Updated surgical procedures and there's more research into the genetics of pancreatic cancer. But there's still a very long way to go.
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