Patrick Swayze and Gene Upshaw.

Pancreatic cancer is a vicious disease.

PS was diagnosed and seems to have it under control. Upshaw, a former football player and head of the Pro Football Player's Union was diagnosed on Friday and died a few days later.

PC can be spotted quite quickly-the rate for survival is rather low but treatment and an early diagnosis are the key.

I lost a loved one from PC and was angry and devastated because she REFUSED to go see a doctor as the symptoms grew worse. IT was always an upset stomach, inability to eat and G.I. problems.

Please get your yearly checkups and don't hesitate to take the tests.

A hour or two of discomfort is better than finding out you are too sick to get treatment.

Same thing with a former co-worker of mine, Richard. He lasted 7 months. He was 41 years old. :( It was a terrible time. I was so sorry to hear about Gene Upshaw today. Far too young. :(

It is a horrible and insidious cancer, we hear about lung cancer all the time, and PC kills almost as many people, but no one talks about it.

It is sometimes difficult to diagnose - one of the symptoms is weight loss, but my friend thought he was just doing really well with his diet. We lost him within a year of diagnosis.

We lost a dear family member to this disease on Sept 7th of last year.
It's a terrible illness.

A very good friend of mine of 20 years is battling pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed last September and started chemo and went downhill rapidly; lost 40 lbs. seemingly over night. He could hardly eat, had no interest in life, just watched TV or laid in bed. The dr. told his family that he had days left. That was in February. He stopped chemo, gained the 40 lbs. back and is now working on his old Mustang, traveling, (he's been to the Bahamas, Niagara Falls, he's visited his home town and he's going to AZ next week) and generally enjoying life. So far, he isn't even in any pain, even though the cancer has spread. He's enjoying life one day at a time. On the other hand, my friend's mother was diagnosed w/it a couple of months ago and hasn't had any chemo at all and it has spread rapidly and she's already in pain. This is the worst cancer, IMO. I pray for anyone who is battling this disease and their family and loved ones as well.

One of the 'silent' cancers that are usually well advanced before causing symptoms. I can believe that Upshaw only felt sick for a week before his diagnosis.

Medicine is full of mysterious events. I worked in Neuro ICU for a few years. We would see some patients with brain tumors - tumors that did not start in the brain, but were mets from somewhere else in the body. Usually these tumors come from the lungs, but there were a few cases where the primary tumor was never found.

My John's mom died from PC.

My neighbor's symptom was a sore on his leg that wouldn't go away. He thought he had bumped himself while on vacation. Of course it had spread by then. He only lasted a few months and walked around with a portable morphine machine. it was terribly sad.