Demetrios Stroubakis, 55, concept he was once having a gallbladder assault when he arrived on the emergency room in August 2021 with jaundice. Instead, he was once stunned to be recognized with pancreatic cancer.
I used to be floored. I believe myself to be reasonably wholesome, so I wasn’t anticipating it. I used to be lucky my spouse Shannon identified the jaundice stipulations. She rushed me to the emergency room and after a number of scans and a tissue biopsy over the route of few days, I were given the unhealthy news.”
Demetrios Stroubakis
The pancreas produces enzymes to assist digest meals and makes the hormone insulin, which controls blood sugar. About 64,000 other people will probably be recognized with pancreatic cancer this yr, and just about 51,000 will die from it. Pancreatic cancer is the 3rd main reason of cancer loss of life within the U.S. and has a five-year survival price of 12.5%.
Stroubakis was once referred to Nirav Thosani, MD, professor within the Department of Surgery with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, to be told extra a few distinctive clinical trial. Thosani is the co-lead investigator of PANCARDINAL-1, a single-site, single-arm, Phase II learn about this is comparing the remedy of endoscopic ultrasound guided radio frequency ablation (EUS-RFA) together with standard-of-care chemotherapy.
The supplemental radiofrequency ablation remedy, together with chemotherapy, works to shrink tumors so there may be much less likelihood of the cancer spreading into blood vessels and sufferers could have a much less invasive tumor elimination process.
In a minimally invasive process, EUS-RFA is carried out with an ultrasound-guided endoscope that delivers a high-frequency alternating present, which will increase the temperature within the cells of the centered tissue, or tumor. This induces coagulative necrosis, or cellular loss of life, in forged tumors.
“We currently have two ongoing clinical trials and most patients with pancreatic cancer may qualify for one or the other trial. We have strict inclusion criterion for the PANCARDINAL-1 trial and we determined that he was a good candidate for the trial. His tumors were near critical blood vessels, so it was crucial to shrink them before surgery,” mentioned Thosani, who’s the director of the Center for Interventional Gastroenterology with McGovern Medical School.
In the span of per week, Stroubakis was once enrolled within the trial and started receiving rounds of chemotherapy in September. By the top of 2021, he started the EUS-RFA remedy.
“What Dr. Thosani is doing with EUS-RFA made complete sense to me. You attack it from the inside out,” Stroubakis mentioned.
After 4 months of chemotherapy and 3 EUS-RFA remedies, Stroubakis went to exploratory surgical treatment for resection of the cancer on Feb. 4, 2022. However, there was once vital irritation of the pancreas, and the surgical treatment may just now not be finished. Stroubakis recovered from the preliminary exploratory surgical treatment and went again to systemic chemotherapy and RFA. After 14 months and 9 extra ablation remedies, Stroubakis’ tumor dimension was once considerably decreased and he underwent the Whipple operation for resection of the pancreatic cancer on April 5, 2023. Stroubakis went house six days after surgical treatment.
“From the beginning, Mr. Stroubakis and his wife have had an amazing, positive attitude. They have been through so much to get to this point today where he is six months out from surgery,” mentioned Curtis Wray, MD, professor within the Department of Surgery with McGovern Medical School and co-lead investigator at the learn about. “Pancreatic cancer treatments have largely remained unchanged for the past 30 years. This new RFA treatment may help to improve outcomes and survival in a cancer with a high mortality rate. This pilot study may provide information to help design further trials involving RFA.”
Stroubakis is again operating as an engineer and spending high quality time along with his spouse and youngsters. He is amazed at how excellent he feels. “The team never lost hope; they got it done and now I’m back on track,” Stroubakis mentioned.
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