Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post

Auburn Annie · 04-03-2003, 01:30 PM

MaryEllen (for anybody else NOT interested, scroll on down):
Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat because it is usually found only after it is far advanced. Symptoms are vague and fit many disease profiles. That said, a localized tumor (not metastasized or spread) can be surgically removed using a Whipple procedure, which if done at a major medical center with very experienced surgeons can have a 5 year survival rate of 25% (up to 40% in some sub-groups) in contrast to a survival rate of about 3% in other pancreatic tumors. There are also benign pancreatic tumors which respond well to both medical and surgical treatment.

That said, The Hawk is not an ideal candidate for long term survival - the article said he's had no treatment beyond his self-prescribed regimen: "I had six or seven months to live," he recalls. "So I doubled up -- no, tripled up -- on everything: whisky, drugs, cigarettes."

Either the initial diagnosis was wrong, or he's too, er, well-preserved for anything to make a dent. I guess you could say he's a living embodiment of the phrase 'only the good die young.'

For an interesting short take on growing up in the Hawkins household, see this piece on his son Robin at http://www.pipcom.com/~thehawk/robin.html

[This message has been edited by Auburn Annie (edited April 03, 2003).]

04-03-2003, 01:30 PM	#11
Auburn Annie Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Upstate New York Posts: 3,101	MaryEllen (for anybody else NOT interested, scroll on down): Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat because it is usually found only after it is far advanced. Symptoms are vague and fit many disease profiles. That said, a localized tumor (not metastasized or spread) can be surgically removed using a Whipple procedure, which if done at a major medical center with very experienced surgeons can have a 5 year survival rate of 25% (up to 40% in some sub-groups) in contrast to a survival rate of about 3% in other pancreatic tumors. There are also benign pancreatic tumors which respond well to both medical and surgical treatment. That said, The Hawk is not an ideal candidate for long term survival - the article said he's had no treatment beyond his self-prescribed regimen: "I had six or seven months to live," he recalls. "So I doubled up -- no, tripled up -- on everything: whisky, drugs, cigarettes." Either the initial diagnosis was wrong, or he's too, er, well-preserved for anything to make a dent. I guess you could say he's a living embodiment of the phrase 'only the good die young.' For an interesting short take on growing up in the Hawkins household, see this piece on his son Robin at http://www.pipcom.com/~thehawk/robin.html [This message has been edited by Auburn Annie (edited April 03, 2003).]