CU Cancer Center Was the Right Destination for a Lifelong Outdoorsman with Pancreatic Cysts

It’s been simply over 4 years since Jim Web page entrusted his destiny to a University of Colorado Cancer Center surgical oncologist after being recognized with precancerous cysts in his pancreas. 4 years since he underwent the surgical procedure that he credit with saving his life.

4 years that he has spent persevering with to pursue his lifelong passions of snowboarding, mountain climbing, mountain biking, {golfing}, and exploring the outside. 4 years of spending time together with his spouse, Ginny, and his youngsters and grandkids as an alternative of succumbing to pancreatic cancer.

“My high quality of life’s been superb because the operation,” says Web page, age 82. “I am very lively bodily, and that’s vital to me. Nonetheless with the ability to do the issues that I a lot need to do is fabulous. I’m occurring an extended bike trip with a buddy this afternoon, going to the fitness center tomorrow, and going snowboarding Wednesday.”

He talks of lately mountain climbing distant desert trails in Bears Ears Nationwide Monument within the wilds of southeast Utah. “It’s fascinating mountain climbing since you don’t have all of the path markers. It’s important to discover the place the path begins after which discover your method.”

Undoubtedly the luckiest feat of route discovering in Web page’s life was the trail that took him to CU Most cancers Middle member Marco Del Chiaro, MD, PhDdivision chief of surgical oncology within the CU Department of Surgery.

Constructive and filled with power

“He was great,” Web page says of Del Chiaro, “and I simply really feel actually fortunate, dwelling in the center of the nation like this, to have a program of this high quality on this specialty space close by.”

Del Chiaro returns Web page’s admiration.

“He’s a particular individual from many views,” Del Chiaro says. “I imply, he’s an ex-Olympic athlete. He lives his life at all times on the edge. And possibly the wonderful restoration he had from this surgical procedure is said to this sort of means of combating and of self-caring. Once you converse to him, he is constructive and filled with power.”

The pancreas is an stomach organ that helps with digestion by producing enzymes that assist break down fat, sugars, and starches.

In line with the American Cancer Societygreater than 60,000 new circumstances of pancreatic most cancers are recognized within the U.S. annually, leading to roughly 48,000 deaths. In Coloradothere are about 810 new circumstances of pancreatic most cancers recognized annually. Though pancreatic most cancers accounts for under 3% of all cancers in the US, it results in about 7% of all most cancers deaths. It’s the third-leading reason for most cancers deaths within the U.S. and No. 2 in Colorado.

Del Chiaro says Web page’s case factors up the significance of prevention and early detection in fending off pancreatic most cancers – and the necessity for additional analysis in that space.

“Till a number of years in the past, there was no prevention for pancreatic most cancers,” he says. “So typically we discuss how a lot we now have improved in treating pancreatic most cancers, however we nonetheless do little or no to attempt to make folks conscious that there’s a risk to stop it.”

Jim Web page and his household hunt for a Christmas tree within the woods. Above photograph courtesy Jim Web page.

An lively outside life

Web page has been snowboarding since he was a boy rising up in Lake Placid, New York, the location of the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980. He was a aggressive skier in highschool and faculty, successful three particular person NCAA snowboarding championships at Dartmouth Faculty within the early Sixties and competing on the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, within the Nordic mixed occasion – cross-country snowboarding and ski leaping.

Web page then turned to teaching, first at Dartmouth (the place his Huge Inexperienced group shared the 1976 NCAA snowboarding championship with the College of Colorado Buffaloes) after which with the U.S. Olympic Ski Staff earlier than changing into an official with the U.S. Olympic Committee till retiring in 2005.

Within the years since, Web page has continued to pursue an lively outside life. However in 2019, a Colorado Springs physician close to his house who administered an MRI for an unrelated problem advised him, “You’ve acquired one thing in your pancreas that’s progressive, and you actually need to see any person about it,” Web page remembers. “The physician stated, ‘It’s possible you’ll require a Whipple surgical procedure, which is a really severe surgical procedure, and you could discover any person who does lots of these and who’s good at it.”

So Web page began investigating. “I used to be Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic and locations like that again East. I did some analysis on native choices, too, and I used to be amazed and happy to search out that the CU Most cancers Middle on the Anschutz Medical Campus is simply so good. And the extra I examine Dr. Del Chiaro, the extra I spotted he’s actually good at this, and that he was precisely who I wanted.”

Web page shortly found that he and Del Chiaro shared a love of snowboarding. “We virtually talked extra about snowboarding than we did concerning the pancreas,” Web page says. “He stated, ‘You actually need to have this surgical procedure, and I can do it, and I can repair you’.”

Advanced and aggressive

Assessments revealed that Web page had developed intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) – precancerous cysts within the duct system of his pancreas. The Whipple process carried out by Del Chiaro in August 2019 concerned eradicating a part of Web page’s pancreas in addition to the gall bladder and a part of the small gut, then reconnecting the remaining pancreas.

Del Chiaro described Web page’s surgical procedure as “very advanced and aggressive. It is the identical surgical procedure that you simply do for pancreatic most cancers.”

Had the MRI not revealed the issue, and had Web page had not acquired the fitting therapy, his lesions may have led to pancreatic most cancers, Del Chiaro says.

On the CU Most cancers Middle, he says, “we now have a clinic devoted to folks with pancreatic cysts. We see lots of people referred to us. We’ve got folks devoted absolutely to observe these sufferers, and as soon as one thing modifications and turn into regarding, to debate potential surgical choices.”

The CU Most cancers Middle is the one Nationwide Most cancers Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center within the state of Colorado, rating it among the many greatest most cancers facilities within the nation. It has additionally been designated a Tutorial Center of Excellence for pancreatic most cancers by the Nationwide Pancreas Basis.

4 years later, whereas he stays below surveillance, Web page says he feels wonderful and has returned to his earlier vigorous way of life.

Lately, he participated as a walker within the Metropolis Park 5K and 1 Mile Run/Walk of Hope for Pancreatic Analysis, co-sponsored by the CU Most cancers Middle and the Division of Surgical Oncology. Del Chiaro helped manage it, and surgeon and affected person met up on the occasion.

Marco Del Chiaro, MD, PhD (left) and Jim Web page on the Metropolis Park 5K and 1 Mile Run/Stroll of Hope for Pancreatic Analysis on Nov. 4, 2023. Picture courtesy Marco Del Chiaro.

Funding in analysis

Web page’s recommendation to others dealing with a medical emergency: “Don’t hesitate. When you might have an issue, and there is a attainable answer, get it finished.”

Del Chiaro provides: “The message is, you probably have any regarding details about your pancreas – let’s say you get in a automobile accident and also you get a CT scan and so they discover a cyst – please go to a specialist, ask what it means, and that perhaps can save your life.”

He notes that folks with a historical past of pancreatic most cancers of their shut household must be screened.

“Now, within the final 20 years, we’ve turn into extra conscious of one other, extremely prevalent class of affected person, with cystic neoplasms of the pancreas,” he provides. “In a current examine, they took a wholesome inhabitants of a spread of ages, and so they did MRIs, and so they realized that cysts of the pancreas are current in about half of the inhabitants.

“A few of these are benign, however some probably can progress to most cancers. And that’s an issue, as a result of immediately we are able to go to Mars with a rover, however we nonetheless don’t have a check to inform us for positive if a cyst can progress to most cancers with excessive accuracy, or when it would occur. So this is a chance for philanthropy. We’d like funding in analysis.”