Roger Stump

<< All Pancreatic Cancer Survivors

I was 52 at the time of my stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis with metastasis to my liver. It was August 2004. I had no symptoms from the disease. I had not been sick in twenty years, not even a cold! The cancer was discovered on a routine un-dyed CT scan after receiving my second kidney stone lithotripsy treatment. I was referred to a local surgeon who ordered a biopsy of my liver. After waiting a week for the results, the pathologist bungled the diagnosis and said I had fibrosis of the liver, only to change his mind an hour after the surgeon confronted him. Apparently he forgot to run the “SPIN TEST”. By then Hurricane Ivan was bearing down on Pensacola, so my wife and I decided to go to Tampa to see the top pancreatic cancer doctor in Florida.

After sitting in an overcrowded waiting room full of very sick people, the doctor looked at my CT scans from Pensacola for five minutes, turned around, and told me I had ONE YEAR TO LIVE! He said that chemo would only make me sick and was like deer hunting with a BB gun! He suggested a regimen of Gemzar but said that it would only slow the cancer down a little bit and give me a few extra months. I asked him how many patients he had seen with my type of cancer and he said “1000 and they are all dead”, he went on to say that he had never heard of anyone surviving it. After all of this, he then asked me to get my affairs in order and return the following week to begin treatments. I left there determined to get another opinion, because I was convinced that this was not going to kill me!

A few days later I went to Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) in Zion, Illinois where they re-ran all the tests and told me that they could do something for me. They exhibited HOPE and common courtesy that I had not seen at the two previous facilities. After eight months they got the cancer into remission (June 2005) as verified by a PET scan; and I have been clear ever since as verified by a PET scan on June 5, 2006.

My treatments consisted of FUDR and Leucavorin pumped into a mediport for four hours a day over five days. One day during the five-day session I was given inter-arterial chemotherapy (Mitomycin and Cisplatin) directly into the liver and pancreas. This routine was repeated once per month over the eight months. After that, I returned every three months for a CT scan, blood tests and physical exam. Also they had me take an oral chemo (Xeloda) which was stopped on June 5, 2006 after another PET scan still showed no cancer! My CA19-9 test results have been in the mid 20’s for over a year now. My first CA19-9 test results in late 2004 were in the thousands!

I experienced very little side effects during the treatments at CTCA: no hair loss, no nausea, very little weight loss, no extreme platelet loss, no white blood cell loss and very little red blood cell loss. Along with the chemotherapy, they gave me natural supplements: milk thistle tablets, green tea tablets, fish oil tablets, maitake mushroom tablets, melatonin, selenium and vitamins A, C E and B6. Also, I changed my bad diet to include lots of broccoli and vegetables, buffalo (much leaner that beef), no fried foods, and no processed meats with nitrates (hot dogs, sausage and bacon), lots of distilled water and no sodas.

I also asked God to reveal to me what I had to do spiritually. My answer was to get rid of un-forgiveness. I went to about six people who I had held grudges against and asked them to forgive me. I also kept a mindset that God was going to deliver me from this hopeless disease. Also, the support of my wife Brenda kept me going. Without her I would not be here today!

After talking to many people at the hospital, I found that the doctor in Tampa was not alone! Doctors all over this country give a similar death sentence to their cancer patients. The mind is a powerful tool in the fight against cancer. When a cancer patient listens to and believes a negative doctor, the patient starts to program their demise. They convince themselves the treatments won’t work. Many have literally died almost to the day, the time the doctor gave them! I thank Jesus every morning for the gift he gave me and that I never lost HOPE and the belief that I would be delivered from this scourge. I plan on living well into my 80’s - Thank you JESUS!

UPDATE:

I had a cancer checkup in October 2007. The tumor residue could no longer be seen on the CT scan.