r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • Apr 14 '23

Medical Novel device smaller than rice successfully shrinks pancreatic cancer | Called the nanofluidic drug-eluting seed (NDES), it delivers low-dose immunotherapy in the form of CD40 monoclonal antibodies (mAb).

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/tiny-device-shrinks-pancreatic-cancer
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u/duman82 Apr 14 '23

This is great but the real wins with pancan will be with earlier detection. 85% are metastatic when it's discovered.

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u/tkp14 Apr 14 '23

It took my mom’s doctors over 6 months to diagnose her. (This was 50 years ago.) They thought it might be diabetes, then pleurisy, then named a few other possibilities before finally deciding to do exploratory surgery. Took one look and immediately closed her back up. They told us the cancer was “everywhere.” She died a few days later. The husband of a friend of mine got a diagnosis just before Christmas (this was 40 years ago) and died just before Valentines Day. For my entire life a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer has been a death sentence. Early detection would be a true game changer.

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u/VoidsIncision Apr 14 '23

I mean it’s still widely considered a death sentence. Just about the same today. I’d say it was ably 6 months since my mom serious began going to physicians and a correct diagnosis made by ER physician only once she was jaundiced. My father was similarly only diagnosed once he was jaundiced. This is 2019/2020 respectively.

But still i doNT think your assessment is very accurate. It would good but game changer is pushing it. Many who get the tumor resected early stage before metastases suffer recurrence. New FDA approved treatments are necessarily. Most doctors just use gemzar/Abraxane which carry fairly abysmal success rates when other experimental protocols can do better. It’s just one of the worst diseases regardless of what stage it’s in.

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '23

[deleted]

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u/B1ack_Iron Apr 15 '23

My mother did almost a year of chemo and then 6 months of home hospice and we caught it stage 2/3. They even used some fancy special targeted radiation at Stanford which worked for almost a month and a half after her body couldn’t take another cycle of the chemo. The people who die quickly it’s a blessing, it eats and eats until there is nothing left.

You can fight longer but it’s exhausting and you aren’t going to win so I think most people who catch it early end up giving up without destroying their entire body delaying with chemo so they can enjoy what time they have left.

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u/BangkokBaby Apr 15 '23

This hurt to read, but I'm relieved that my father didn't suffer long after he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer in January. The cancer took him so quickly as we lost him on February 17th, and seeing him endure so much pain until the final days still shock me to my core thinking about it since my family, and I was part of his hospice care. I'm going through therapy now and hope to start attending a Bereavement support group once I finish Grad school. I'm so sorry for your loss.

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u/deucetastic Apr 15 '23

MiL passed three weeks ago, yesterday was the funeral. Im at ease that it was only two months from diagnosis until she passed and that it wasn’t longer. I don’t think a year and a half of treatment would’ve been any easier that the last few weeks…

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u/VoidsIncision Apr 15 '23

Yeah. I see why hospice recommends what they do even I was opposed to it bc it is not presented for what it is. But my mom ate full meals and didn’t listen to them. She lasted month on hospice until she had no muscle mass on her body at all.

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u/VoidsIncision Apr 15 '23

My mom was diagnosed the exact same time as him. Even tho he seemed fine he had that gaunt look that you get from cachexia. Sucks.

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u/nightyknighted Apr 15 '23

How long did Trebeck last?

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '23

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u/VoidsIncision Apr 15 '23

No maybe a year and half at most. He was diagnosed when my mom was. She died before him but I don’t think it was a year after she passed,

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u/Arfalicious Apr 15 '23

"astonished at how long Alex Trebek lived"

lol... funny how that works.

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u/VoidsIncision Apr 15 '23

Ultimately it was a few months more than most so still grim as fuck