Quote: Tim Walker @ October 3 2008, 2:04 PM BSTThat is extremely saddening. Commiserations & best wishes to your friend and to you. To get pancreatic cancer at the age of 19 is not only extremely unusual, but also tragically unfair. It is one of those cancers, unfortunately, that clinically presents very late and treatment is limited, I won't quote you the survival rates (which are thoroughly depressing, though I hope have improves somewhat since I was at medical school). Wishing your friend every comfort & happiness she can have. Experimental treatments are worth going for in this situation and, though statistics in medicine are actually pretty much spot-on, being so young for this disease may hopefully count in her favour. I suppose in this situation, despite the odds, you've got to look at your situation as a n=1 study. All the best.
That's very kind of you, Tim. It is very unusual to develop this particular cancer at such a young age; the particular strain in question has afflicted (so I'm told) fewer than 100 young people internationally. It's even more tragic because the local GP failed to diagnose the cancer for some time, meaning it was quite advanced by the time treatment became available. Doctors said she wouldn't make her 19th birthday, but thankfully she "celebrated" it last month.