CANCER DAY PEOPLE ALL AROUND THE WORLD ARE GOING UNITE TO FIGHT. THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST CANCER NOW HERE AT HOME JUPITER MEDICAL CENTER SEEING A RISE IN PANCREATIC CANCER PATIENTS AS WELL SO HERE TO TALK MORE ABOUT THIS IS DOCTOR BAG WAND IN AND ALSO DON KILLIAN DONNED YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH A LOT WHEN IT COMES TO PANCREATIC CANCER AND YOU HAD POTENTIALLY LIFE-SAVING SURGERY. WE’RE GOING TO GET TO YOUR STORY IN JUST A SECOND. BUT FIRST, DR. TELL ME WHAT WHAT ARE THE KIND OF SIGNS IF ANY FOLKS CAN BE LOOKING FOR TO MAKE SURE THEY DON’T BECOME A VICTIM TO THIS. YEAH, OF COURSE PANCREATIC CANCER IS A VERY DIFFICULT CANCER TO TREAT ITS HAS VERY VAGUE ABDOMINAL COMPLAINTS SOME PATIENTS WILL PRESENT WITH JAUNDICE BIG BACK PAIN ABDOMINAL PAIN NAUSEA VOMITING WEIGHT LOSS. THAT COULD BE A NUMBER OF THINGS EXACTLY AND THAT’S WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO PAY ATTENTION TO THOSE SYMPTOMS AND BE EVALUATED AND TREATED OR AT LEAST ASSESS EARLY ON DON HAD A VERY UNIQUE FINDING ON AN INCIDENTAL FINDING IN FACT ON HIS IMAGING THAT WE PERSISTED AND FOUND A VERY SURPRISING PRECANCEROUS CHANGE IN HIS CHRIS AND DON’T TELL ME ABOUT THAT. SO YOU WENT INTO THE HOSPITAL SOMETHING KIDNEY RELATED AND TURNS OUT YOU’RE ABLE TO GET THIS SURGERY. SO TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED. WHILE I ACTUALLY HAD A KIDNEY INFECTION. OKAY, AND I WENT TO UROLOGIST AND HAD A CAT SCAN AND IT WAS DR. SUDDEN INCIDENTAL FINDING WHICH MEANS THEY FOUND SOMETHING THEY REALLY WEREN’T LOOKING FOR AND THAT COULD HAVE LED TO PANCREATIC CANCER. SO YOU FOUND SOMETHING THAT WOULD VERY EARLY ON YEAH, JUST YOU KNOW BY LUCK, I GUESS AND WHAT WERE ABLE TO DO FOR YOU THEN AND THERE AND IT WAS AS THE DOCTOR SAID THERE. IT’S ASYMPTOMATIC. OKAY. I HAD NO IDEA. I THOUGHT GREAT. I WAS REFERRED TO DR. BERG WANDING, AND HE RECOMMENDED THAT I HAVE THE SURGERY, YOU KNOW, WE COULD HAVE FOLLOWED IT AND HAD UNDER SKYPE YOU EVERY FEW MONTHS, BUT HE THOUGHT THE BETTER ROUTE WOULD BE TO HAVE THE SURGERY SO I DID THAT AND AND AS IT TURNS OUT. BASICALLY SAVED MY LIFE AND DOCTOR TELL ME WHAT DOES THAT SURGERY IN DETAIL HOW INTRUSIVE IS A SO TO SORT OF TAKE A STEP BACK? I MEAN THAT WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR SOME PREMALIGNANT CHANGES SORT OF AKIN TO WHAT YOU WOULD THINK OF WITH A POLYP ON A COLONOSCOPY. SO THIS IS SOMETHING THAT A CHANGE IN HIS PANCREAS THE DUCT, WHICH IS WHERE A LOT OF PANCREATIC CANCER STARTS FROM ITS THE DUCT OF THE PANCREAS AND AS A RESULT OF THAT THIS CAN OVER TIME PROLIFERATE AND BECOME A PANCREATIC CANCER THE CHANGES ON IMAGING PROMPTED US TO DO A FURTHER. INSPECTION AND CLOSER LOOK AT THE PANCREAS AND BASED ON THAT WE FOUND WHAT’S CALLED AND IPMN OR INTRADUCTAL PAPILLARY MUCINOUS NEOPLASM. OVER TIME THESE CAN TRANSFORM TO CANCER. SO WHAT WE DID WAS ESSENTIALLY AN ENDLESS COPY TO DO A BIOPSY WHICH WAS INCONCLUSIVE BUT BASED ON THE CHANGES, WE ULTIMATELY ENDED UP REMOVING THE TAIL OF THE PANCREAS ROBOTICALLY AND AS A RESULT OF THAT DIAGNOSED THE CONDITION AND ESSENTIALLY PREVENTED THIS FROM TURNING INTO A CANCER. ADAN WHAT WAS YOUR RECOVERY LIKE I JUST HAD IT A MONTH AGO. SO IT WAS AND HERE YOU LOOK GREAT YOU LOOK HOW AWFUL MEDICAL CENTER IT’S A FANTASTIC PLACE AND THIS GENTLEMAN HERE. HE FLIES AT AN ALTITUDE ABOVE ALL TRUST ME. THAT’S FANTASTIC. HE DID IT ROBOTICALLY LAPAROSCOPICALLY, LAPAROSCOPICALLY, WHICH IS MINIMALLY INVASIVE. IN RECENT HISTORY, I GUESS THEY WOULD HAVE HAD TO CUT YOU OPEN WHEREAS. YOU DID IT LAUGHTER SCOTT QUICKLY. SO I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL FOR THREE DAYS. THAT’S IT. I WENT HOME AND PROBABLY THE ONLY GLITCH I HAD WAS I WAS TRYING TO DO TOO MUCH TOO SOON RIGHT MOMENT. HE SET ME STRAIGHT ON THAT. SO ABOUT A MONTH. I FEEL GREAT. I’M WALKING A MILE TWO MILES A DAY. IT’S FANTASTIC. YOU LOOK SUPER HEALTHY. WONDERFUL NOTE. TELL ME DR. ALEX TREBEK OF COURSE HAS BECOME THE CELEBRITY FACE OF THIS IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS HIS STORY VERY DIFFERENT THAN DON’S. HAVE YOU SEEN IN YOUR CLINIC THAT ARE MORE PEOPLE COMING IN? FAMILIAR WITH WHAT ALEX TREBEK HAS GONE THROUGH IS THAT PUSHED THEM INTO THE CLINICS TO GET CHECKED AT ALL HAVE YOU SO MUCH ONLY WELL THE AWARENESS AND THE HEIGHTENED AWARENESS TO PAY ATTENTION. I MEAN AGAIN, WE TALKED ABOUT VAGUE SYMPTOMS, BUT SURE JUST BEING VIGILANT WITH THAT AND CERTAINLY, YOU KNOW JUPITER WE STARTED A PANCREATIC CYSTS SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM TO WHEN YOU HAVE HIGH RISK FINDINGS, ESPECIALLY IN THE PANCREAS BECAUSE A LOT OF THE TIME THESE THINGS ARE PICKED UP JUST BY ROUTINE IMAGING THAT THE REGIMENT’S OF FOLLOW THEM VERY CLOSELY IS IMPORTANT, BUT YOU KNOW, ALEX IS DOING WHAT WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE DOING TOMORROW. IF WE’RE WORLD PANCREATIC CANCER DAY, WHICH IS SPREADING AWARENESS. HE’S CERTAINLY RESUME CHEMOTHERAPY AND I THINK MORE PEOPLE THAT ARE AWARE OF HOW DEADLY THIS DISEASE IS BY 2020 PANCREATIC CANCER IS POSITION TO BECOME THE SECOND MOST DEADLIEST CANCER WORLDWIDE WHERE IT’S CURRENTLY RIGHT NOW. IT’S THIRD SO WE’RE CERTAINLY SEEING AN INCREASE IN SENTENCE AND THAT AND ITS REALLY PAID TANK PAYING ATTENTION TO THE IMPORTANCE OF SEEING A SURGE IN VERY SOON BECAUSE THAT IT DOES BECOME THE MORE DEFINITIVE WAY TO TREAT THIS AND TOMORROW’S THE BIG IMPORTANT TO GET THAT MESSAGE OUT THERE EVEN MORE. DR. DON. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE THIS MORNING IF YOU WANT A LITTLE BIT MORE INFORMATION YOURSELF ABOUT HOW YOU CAN TAKE PART TOMORROW. YOU CAN VISIT WORLD PANCREATIC CANCER DAY.ORG. WE ALSO THROUGH A LINK OVER ON OUR WEBSITE WPBF.COM AND IF YOU WANT TO SEE JEOPARDY HOST ALEX TREBEK’S FULL PSA ON THIS YOU COULD WAT