Kathy Murray

The Diagnosis

On May 10th, our mom was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas. The pancreas consists of a head, body, and tail; and through a CT scan, the doctors found a 3cm tumor in the body of the pancreas. The scan also showed that the tail has weakened (atrophy). At this time, the tumor is not operable due to the location and proximity to the blood vessels. Furthermore, the CT scan showed significant lymph node involvement throughout the abdomen and back. Due to the amount of lymph node’s involved the doctor felt that further testing would be important. 

On May18th, the doctors completed a second biopsy of the lymph nodes. The result from this biopsy showed that my mom also has Non-Hodgkin’s Follicular Lymphoma. This was positive news to hear as lymphoma is a more treatable cancer. This additional diagnosis provides my mom with a potential for surgery down the road.

The final diagnosis is Pancreatic Cancer (Adenocarcinoma) combined with Non-Hodgkin’s Follicular Lymphoma.

The Treatment Plan



The plan is to treat both cancers with chemotherapy with the goal of shrinking the pancreas tumor enough to become operable down the road. Chemo will consist of 5 different chemo’s every two weeks. She will have 4 of the 5 chemo’s administered at the hospital. The remaining chemo is administered over a 46 hour period. For this, they send her home with a "fanny pack" of medicine for two days and then a nurse will come to the house to disconnect the medicine. After 3-4 rounds of treatment, the doctors will repeat her scans to see the progress of the treatment.


Thank you to everyone for the incredible amount of encouragement and support! Please continue to keep the prayers coming!